


Beautiful Trauma

by EvilRegalKelly



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:23:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilRegalKelly/pseuds/EvilRegalKelly
Summary: Emma Swan is harbouring a secret, but when Miss Mills notices something is wrong and confronts her, Emma confides in her. Regina vows to do the best she can to help her student. Will Regina risk putting her job on the line? What happens when both Emma and Regina get more than they bargained for?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I’ve actually shared online, I normally just write for myself. I know I’m not that great at it, but I enjoy it regardless, so please be nice :) Also, all mistakes are my own. I don't have a beta reader, so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or things that might not make sense. Feel free to tell me if you notice any mistakes or anything that doesn't sound quite right.

The early morning October sunshine shone through a small gap in the blinds of the bedroom window, right onto the closed eyes of seventeen year old Emma Swan. She was currently laying on her back sprawled out across her bed, with one of her arms tucked underneath her head, and her long blonde hair was messily sprawled across her pillow.

She scrunched her nose and squinted her eyes shut even more. The sunlight told her that last night was a thing of the past, but for the life of her, she couldn't recall a lot of what had happened. All that she did know in that moment, was that she had a furry mouth from the consumption of far too much alcohol, that her legs ached and that she was sporting a major headache.

She slowly opened her green eyes and blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the brightness, and then rolled over to one side to glance at her alarm clock on her night stand: 7:55am. _Ugh!_ Normally Emma wouldn't mind being woken up this early, if she had school or even work to go to, but today was Sunday, and she had neither.

Emma shivered a little and grabbed hold of her sheets to wrap herself up more, but that was when she realized she was naked and not wearing her pajamas. The pajamas which were still hanging over the foot of her bed, where she had left them the morning before. She didn't know why she had taken her underwear off though, and shrugged it off as being too drunk to remember or even care.

She yawned and grabbed hold of her fleece blanket beside her, wrapping it more around her cold naked body, and leaned over to grab her cell phone. After pressing the button, she noticed she had a few text messages. The first message was from her best friend Ruby: _Hope you got home okay babes. I hope you had a great night. I know I did ;-) LOVE YOUUUU._

Emma smiled. She knew what the winky face meant when it came to Ruby, and quickly sent her a reply back: _Yeah, I got home okay, although I don't remember much. How did I even get home? Lol. Ooooh who'd you fuck? Love you too bitch._

After Emma had replied to Ruby, she pressed onto the message from Neal, which just said: _I had a really great night Ems._

Emma didn't think anything bad of the message, but raised a suspicious eyebrow anyway. All she could think to reply was: _Me too._

After pressing send, Emma put her phone back on her bedside and yawned. She closed her eyes and tried her hardest to remember what had happened last night...

* * *

"Come on Em's, you've seemed so down in the dumps," Ruby sighed and gave Emma's arm a gentle nudge. Ruby Lucas was Emma's best friend, and she had been trying her best to get Emma out of this funk she had been in the past few days. "Please come out with me, just tonight. If this doesn't cheer you up a little, I'll leave you to mope about all you like." the lanky brunette pouted and gave her, her best puppy dog eyes.

Emma looked up from where her face was buried in her pillow from sighing. She tried to hold a back a smirk when she saw the look on Ruby's face. "Don't go giving me that puppy dog look that you know I can't say no to." she said, just as the corners of her mouth started turning upwards slightly.

"Well, I'd say they are more wolf, than puppy dog, but either way, I know you can't resist my charm," Ruby chuckled. "So? Please?" she begged once again.

Emma rolled her eyes and her mouth finally pulled into a small smile. "Who is even going tonight anyway?" she asked as she got herself into a sitting position on her bed.

Ruby had a shit eating grin on her face. She knew all along that she'd be able to get Emma to come out tonight. "Just our usual gang. Belle, Tink, Neal and Killian, oh and not to forget, the beautiful, wonderful, fabulous, amazing, _me_ , of course." Ruby grinned.

Emma shook her head and laughed at her friend "Oh, how could I possibly resist if you're going?" she joked. "I suppose I better make the most of having some money before I lose my job." she added with a sigh. Emma worked at Granny's Diner, and on her last shift, not only had she smashed two plates and mucked up an entire order, but she had completely forgotten to charge a table, making the cash register come up 47 dollars short. She had been worrying about it ever since.

"Ems, I told you it'll all be okay. Granny will probably just take it out of your pay for next month. I mean geez Em, how many times do you think I've messed up in there? I dropped a whole tray of food once, and half of it landed over Cora Mills' lap." Ruby reminisced with a shudder.

"Yeah, but she's your grandmother Rubes. She's bound to go easy on you," Emma sighed and put her head into her hands. "She'll probably fire me," she mumbled through her fingers. "And I really need this job."

"It's exactly because I'm her granddaughter that she doesn't go easy on me. She wouldn't pay me for a week because of the mess and embarrassment I had caused her with Cora Mills. She won't fire you though. I can assure you that. Do you really think she'd fire my best friend? Now please?" Ruby begged yet again. "We've gotta put those fake ID's to use at sometime, right? I'm gonna make sure you have a great time tonight Em." She slapped Emma on the thigh, "Come on. Go get in the shower, because you smell" Ruby joked and playfully wafted her hand in front of her face at an imaginary smell..

Emma gasped, acting hurt "Bitch." she smirked as she climbed off her bed.

"Yes, but you love me though." Ruby flashed her a toothy grin, as she watched Emma head out of her room and down the stairs. She carried on getting herself ready, as her things were already at Emma's.

Forty-five minutes later, Emma waltzed back into her bedroom, with a towel wrapped around her body. Her make-up was done and her long blonde hair had been dried and was now hung down her back in lose curls. She felt much better and was now looking forward to going out tonight. She stopped dead in her tracks and wolf whistled at Ruby "Wow Rubes, you look-"

"Hot, I know," Ruby finished Emma's sentence for her, and beamed as gave a twirl. She was wearing a pair of black leather pants, with a red blouse and pair of black heels, finishing off her look with a black Fedora. "Does my ass look good in these pants?"

"Yeah, you know it does." Emma chuckled and slapped her friend on her ass as she walked past and over to her dresser to grab some underwear for herself, and then headed over to her closet. She pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans and a long white blouse, and changed into them. "What do you think?" She asked as she straightened out her blouse and turned back towards Ruby, who was sat at Emma's desk drinking from an almost empty bottle of whiskey. "Where did you get that?" she smirked.

"From Granny's liquor cabinet," Ruby shrugged, like it was nothing. "And you look hot. I'd fuck you," she shrugged again and winked at her best friend, and took another sip from the bottle of amber liquid "Here, get a drink in you." she handed the bottle to Emma.

Emma took hold of the bottle and downed the remains of the whiskey, just as there was a knock on her bedroom door.

"Girls?" Mary Margaret said as she poked her head around the door.

"Yeah Mom?" Emma quickly hid the now empty bottle behind her back. Her mother would kill her if she saw her with it. "What do you want?"

"Don't you both look beautiful," Mary Margaret smiled. "I just wanted to see if you girls wanted anything to eat before you headed out?"

"Uh, we both ate already though, but thanks," Emma spoke quickly, trying her best not to look like she was hiding something. "Bye Mom." she said hoping her mother would leave, but instead she walked further into Emma's room.

"So where are you girls off to tonight?" Mary Margaret asked nicely as she sat herself down on the edge of Emma's bed.

Emma's eyes widened a little and she turned to Ruby, still keeping the empty whiskey bottle hidden behind her back.

"Oh, it's just a small party at Killian's place. He is throwing a surprise party for his brother Liam." Ruby lied, but she was good at it. Emma would have been stuttering and thinking of what to come up with.

"Yeah, that's right," Emma added as she picked up her black leather jacket and hid the empty bottle underneath it "We had better be going now. We uh.. we said we'd help set up." She smiled at her mother and grabbed Ruby's hand to head out of the door.

"Wait, aren't you forgetting something?" Mary Margaret said raising an eyebrow to Emma.

 _Shit. We've been caught!_ Emma widened her eyes before turning around to face her mother, who was now standing right behind her "What?"

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

 _Phew!_ "Oh, sorry," Emma forced a smile, not wanting to get too close to her mother, in fear that she'd smell the whiskey on her breath. "Bye Mom."

"Bye Mrs Nolan." Ruby smiled sweetly, as Emma tugged her down the stairs and towards the door to the apartment.

"Have a lovely time girls. Be careful," Mary Margaret called out as she walked down the metal staircase herself "And sweetheart, you know your curfew time."

"Yes Mom, midnight, I know," Emma called back as she opened the door and both Ruby and her spilled out of it "Love you. Bye." she said as the door closed behind her and Emma finally sighed with relief to be out of there. "Do you think she knew about the alcohol, and about the non-existent party?" Emma panicked, as they headed down the stairs and out of the apartment building. She threw the empty bottle into the nearby dumpster.

"Em, if she knew do you think she'd of still let you go?" Ruby asked. "You need another drink in you girl. You need to chill out and relax and have a good evening." she smiled and linked her arm with Emma's.

"Yeah, you're right," Emma took a deep breath and smiled "A night of fun."

They'd all gotten into The Rabbit Hole perfectly fine, no one even questioning their fake ID's. Three whiskey and coke's and a handful of shots later, Emma found herself having a great time. She had forgotten all about the trouble with Granny's Diner and was perfectly chilled out and having a great time with her friends. She was on the dance floor with Ruby, dancing to the song Down and Dirty by Little Mix. They were laughing and pretending to sexy dance up and down each others legs.

A gawping Neal was stood to one side, with his cell phone in his hand and taking a Snap of Emma and Ruby playfully sexy dancing, and then sent it on to some people with the caption: _Emma and Ruby. Aren't they hot? :P_

"Hey stop creeping and taking pictures of us." Ruby joked when she spotted Neal with his phone aimed at them.

"I'm not, well I was. I'm not now." Neal said and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

Emma laughed "Let him take pictures, he will probably use that to get himself off later." she joked.

"You know it." Neal chuckled at his friends jokes, just as a slow song started to play.

"I'm gonna go grab another drink, coming?" Ruby said slightly breathless from all the dancing.

Emma went to follow Ruby, but was stopped by Neal grabbing her by the elbow "Wait, have a dance with me Ems."

"If you think I'm sexy dancing with you, you better think again," Emma sassed. "But I guess one dance with you won't hurt, will it?" she smiled, and wrapped her arms around Neal's neck.

"Thanks," Neal said, and gently wrapped his arms around Emma's waist, and started swaying side to side with her. "You.. You look really beautiful tonight Emma."

Emma, not hearing the meaningfulness in Neal's voice, come back with "So, are you saying I don't every other day then?" and then laughed.

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that." Neal stuttered, thinking he'd offended Emma.

Emma only managed to laugh at the look on Neal's face. "Neal, I'm messing with you." she smiled and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek, as a way of apology for laughing at him when he was just trying to be nice, and she went back to swaying with him.

Neal took the kiss on the cheek as something more, and when the song was almost over, he looked into Emma's eyes, and leaned in to kiss her properly. Emma could feel Neal's hands inching towards her ass, and she noticed what he was going to do. Before he could, she pulled away "I'm gonna go get a drink now." she said quickly and forcefully smiled at Neal and walked off of the dance floor, and towards the bar. She quickly turned her head and watched Neal, who looked like a wounded puppy, walk back over to the table that Ruby and Belle were sat at.

"Another drink Swan?" Killian asked as her put his arm around Emma's shoulder and had his other arm around Tink's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'd love a beer please, but first I really need to go pee," Emma laughed and slipped out from Killian's arm. "I'll meet you guys back at the table." she said as she headed off in the direction of the bathroom. She didn't actually need to go, she just needed a moment to think. Once in the bathroom stall, she closed the door and leaned up against it, taking a deep breath. _Was Neal really about to kiss me?_ She didn't like him in that way. She thought he knew that. _Maybe it was just the drink? Yeah, it must be that._

Emma sighed and flushed the toilet regardless and unlocked the door. She had just taken her cell phone out of her pocket to look at the time when she bumped right into someone. "Oh, shit, sorry." she said still looking down at her phone. It was almost 10pm.

"That's quite alrig- Miss Swan?" came the surprised reply.

Emma recognized the slightly husky voice right away, and looked up and into the chocolate brown eyes that she always loved looking into at shool. _Shit!_ "Miss Mills?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be Regina’s POV of the night out.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was just starting to set on Mifflin Street, and a light breeze came through the open window of twenty-six year old Regina Mills' study. All was silent in the big, old house as Regina leaned over and flipped on her desk lamp, so she could she finish off grading the few papers she had left to do. She had spent her entire Saturday working on some of her lesson plans for next week and grading History papers, just so she didn't have to do any of it tomorrow. The only reason being was that a few of her colleagues had planned a night out, and Regina had actually given in and agreed to go. So she didn't want to be spending her Sunday grading papers, especially if she was slightly hungover.

Regina pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, as she placed another graded paper on the pile. _Ah, last one._ She smiled to herself realizing it was her last paper to grade. Her smile unintentionally grew a little bigger when she realized it was Emma Swan's paper. Emma always seemed to have the best papers, and Regina often found she enjoyed reading Emma's work.

The last few weeks Regina's class had been learning about the history of London, England, and Regina had set for them to write about something to do with London's history. Emma's paper was about the serial killer: Jack the Ripper.

Fifteen minutes later, and Regina had marked Emma's paper with a well deserved A+, and with a smile, she placed the graded paper on top of the pile of other ones.

She glanced at the clock and it was coming up to 6pm. She took off her glasses and put them back into their rightful place, picked up her cell phone and headed into the kitchen. She went straight over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of red wine and poured herself a generous size glass. She hummed as she took a long, well deserved sip before topping up her glass. She put the rest of the bottle back in the refrigerator and made her way upstairs to her bedroom.

Regina opened up her closet and stood for a few moments, wine still in hand, until she started sliding various outfits along on their hangers, deciding on what she could wear tonight. "That will do." she said to herself as she pulled a black Gucci dress off it's hanger, and went and placed it on her bed. She opened up her underwear drawer, taking out a matching set of black underwear and a pair of black pantyhose and placed them on top of her dress.

Her cell phone chimed, alerting her that she had just received a text message. She took another sip of her wine and unlocked the phone with her thumb. The text was from her good friend and colleague, Kathryn: _Will be picking you up at 7, be ready._

Regina didn't even bother replying as she was about to jump in the shower anyway. She quickly glanced once more at the time and noticed she had less than an hour to get ready. She swiftly drunk as much of her wine as she could, before putting the almost empty glass on her nightstand. She stripped off her clothes, and made sure she put them into the laundry hamper before heading into the bathroom and turning on the shower.

She was sure she set a record for herself, for the quickest shower on a night out. She was washed and out of the bathroom within twelve minutes to be exact. She walked out of the bathroom, naked except for the red towel piled up on her head. She slipped into the gray silk robe that was hanging on the back of her bedroom door, whilst she went about the rest of her routine to get ready. Once sat at her dressing table, she shook the towel off of her head and dried her shoulder length black hair with a hairdryer. She was happy with how it looked, for only having so little time to get ready. She didn't really like rushing at all, but she didn't have much of a choice. She knew Kathryn would think she was skipping out on going out if she'd said to her that she would make her own way to the bar, which is true. She probably would skip out.

Once she was satisfied with her appearance, after applying some mascara to her eyes and some burgundy colored lipstick to her plump lips, she put on her underwear and pantyhose, then slipped into her dress. She finished off her look with a burgundy colored suit jacket, that almost matched her lipstick. Just before heading downstairs, she grabbed a pair of black suede knee high boots from her closet and picked up her wine glass off the night stand. Once in the foyer, she put her phone next to her purse. Looking up at the clock on the wall, she realized she still had ten minutes to spare. She was actually quite impressed with herself for being ready so efficiently. She went straight back into the kitchen, grabbing the already open bottle of wine and took a seat at the kitchen island and filled up her glass. She managed to finish off the rest of the bottle before Kathryn sent her a text to say she was outside.

Regina grabbed her things and left the house. She pulled open the waiting taxi door "You're late," she scolded Kathryn. "Your tardiness made me drink an entire bottle of wine to myself whilst waiting for you." she said as she slipped into the taxi next to her friend, and honestly she felt a little drunk already.

"Regina, it's only six minutes after seven, and honestly, you having that to drink before hand isn't such a bad thing now is it? Maybe you'll be more relaxed." she smirked at Regina who was giving her friend a slight glare.

"Well when you say you're going to be here at seven, I except you here at seven," Regina rolled her eyes. Even though she sounded sincere, her friend knew she wasn't being completely serious. "And I'll have you know, I _am_ relaxed."

"Yeah, that is probably down to the bottle of wine you've already consumed." Kathryn added with a little chuckle.

"I was only planning on drinking half of it, but as you kept me waiting, I had no choice but to dispose of it.. down my throat." she added almost quietly and smirked when Kathryn had laughed in response.

A few minutes later, the taxi pulled up outside The Rabbit Hole. Kathryn paid the driver and they exited the car, and both headed into the bar. Regina didn't really like the idea of being in a bar, she much preferred to go to a restaurant, which to her was a much more respectable place, with a couple of bottles of wine, some nice food and good company, instead of being in a bar where some people drunk far too much and started fights or even worse, tried to hit on her.

Once inside the dimly lit bar, Regina looked over to see a table in the far corner, where a few of her colleagues already sat, and waved in their direction as she followed Kathryn over.

"Regina, darling, so lovely of you to make it this time." the British, English teacher, who went by the name of Ella had said, before swiftly turning back towards the swimming coach, Ursula and continuing their conversation about Ella's precious dogs. Regina had always disliked the woman, and had often chuckled to herself whenever she had heard any of the students at school call Ella 'Cruella DeVil', the woman even had black and white hair, just like the crazy Disney villain.

"Regina, take a seat." Mal, the blonde haired Chemistry teacher had said and shuffled over on the booth to make a little more room for Regina to sit.

"Thanks." Regina smiled as she slid into the booth.

"It's good to see you out with us." Mal added once Regina had sat down and taken off her jacket.

Regina didn't actually have a good explanation as to why she'd turned down the other handful of times she'd been invited out. She didn't want to just say _'because I didn't feel like coming out'_ or to say that _'I'd rather stay at home in the comfort of my own bed or in a bubble bath with a good book and a bottle of wine'_ , so instead she just settled on saying "It's good to actually be out" which she lied, because she didn't overly want to be there. It was in that moment that she decided she needed to get some more alcohol in her to make her relax a little more, at least that way she might even enjoy herself. "Um, I'm going to get a drink. Does anyone need one?" she asked the four other women.

Kathryn piped up "I'll have whatever you're having." she smiled.

"I only just bought this round a few minutes before you both got here, so I think we're good at the moment, thanks Regina." Ursula said, gesturing to the three glasses of wine already on the table.

"Okay, how about I just bring back a bottle or two for the table? Pinot Grigio I take it?"

"Yes, that'd be lovely dear." Ella for once actually smiled at her.

Regina pursed her lips together in a sort of smile and nodded as she grabbed her purse and headed up to the bar. She took a deep breath: _Regina you really need to learn to just relax and enjoy yourself._ She mentally scolded herself. "Could I have two bottles of Pinot Grigio and two glasses.. Oh and a scotch, neat please." she asked the guy behind the bar.

Once the scotch was placed in front of her her, she quickly downed it. She was hoping the extra bit of liquid courage would help her just relax and enjoy the evening, and not want to head straight home. It wasn't that Regina was shy, she was far from it, she just didn't really like many people and vise versa, not many people liked her either. She wasn't sure if it was because her mother Cora, was head of the school board or if it was the fact that her mother was sleeping with Principal Gold. The thought of that infuriating man alone made Regina shudder, but when she had walked into her mothers office one day, a few months back, and caught the two of them in a very comprising position, it had made Regina want to bleach her eyes clean. Regina never knew why, but her mother had always been a powerful person in Storybrooke, and somehow always had people at her beck and call.

Regina handed over her card and paid for the drinks, then headed back to the table. She already felt more relaxed and knew it was down to the scotch giving her the extra kick she needed to get through the night. She smiled as she sat back down "So, what are we talking about?" she asked as she poured out a glass of wine for herself and for Kathryn and topping up Mal, Ursula and Ella's glasses too.

"We were actually just talking about that new Geography teacher, Mr Locksley-" Ursula started.

"-And how we think he has a thing for you, Regina." Mal added with a smirk.

"Oh please, Robin and I had _one_ conversation in the faculty lounge, and that was purely because he had the audacity to use _my_ coffee mug."

"Oh, Robin is it?" Mal questioned and once again her mouth pulled into a smirk.

"Come on Regina, even I've seen the way he looks at you." Kathryn said with a slight shrug.

Regina's eyes widened and turned into a slight glare at her friend "Hey, whose side are you on here Kathryn?" she said with a half playful, half serious glare. "Also, I'll have you know that he is married man with a young child. Have none of you heard him doting over his son in the faculty lounge? Um, Roland I think?"

"Married man or not, he still makes eyes at you darling." Ella grinned.

This time Kathryn did actually back Regina up "Actually, yes I have heard him talking about Roland. He even showed around a photo of him on his phone. The little dimples on him, he's really quite adorable."

"Oh, is someone getting baby fever?" 

"How are things with you and Frederick?"

"Are you both getting enough baby making practice in?" Mal chuckled.

Regina kept quiet this time, and smirked at Kathryn from over the rim of her wine glass. She was glad that the conversation had gone off her for the time being, and was now on her friend, who she wasn't going to help get out of after the sly comment she had just given.

The two bottles of wine gradually diminished over the course of an hour, in between lots of chatter between the five women. Regina had relaxed a lot and was actually having a good time. Mal and Ella had just come back from the bathroom and on the way had bought another two bottles of wine from the bar.

"If you'll excuse me, it's my turn to head to the ladies room now." She smiled and excused herself. She couldn't possibly drink anymore without using the toilet first. She pushed open the door and headed inside the empty bathroom and in to one of the stalls. She had heard someone enter the bathrooms a few moments later. Once she had relieved herself, she flushed the toilet and headed out to the sink to wash her hands and then dry them. Just as she was about to walk past the rest of the stalls to head out of the bathroom, someone else had walked out, clearly not looking where they were going and had bumped right into her. "Oh, shit, sorry" they'd mumbled without even looking up from their phone. "That's quite alrig-" She had started before she realized who it was that had bumped into her "-Miss Swan?"

"Miss Mills?" Emma had looked Regina directly in the eyes and replied, the look of shock on her face was apparent once she realized who she had bumped into.

Regina had raised her eyebrows. She knew Emma, one of her students shouldn't be there in The Rabbit Hole, seeing as the bar didn't let under 21's in. She also knew that Emma wouldn't be out alone either, which meant there must be other underage students there too. "Would you like to tell me what you're doing here?" She said, folding her arms and waiting for an answer.

Emma audibly swallowed. She honestly didn't expect it to be the teacher she sort of had a crush on, busting her for being in a bar, underage. "Um, I'm not drinking." she had lied.

"Miss Swan, you're standing close enough to me for me to able to smell the alcohol on you. Who else are you here with?" Regina questioned, suddenly feeling a lot more sober herself now.

The look in Emma's face changed to a look of frustration. It looked as if Emma was thinking of what to say that wasn't going to land her in more trouble. She noticed Emma's face momentarily change from a look of frustration to a look of defeat "I'm just here with a couple of my friends Miss Mills. Please, we didn't mean no harm, we just wanted a night out. They were just trying to cheer me up a little." Emma had said with a sigh and then looked down to her feet, which were shuffling a little.

Regina knew she was about to ruin Emma's night by dropping her and her friends in shit, but the look on Emma's face had made her change her mind. She wouldn't normally change her mind, so she didn't know why she was giving in now "Go and enjoy the rest of your evening Emma." she said she with small smile.

"What? Really?" Emma responded by looking up with a thankful smile.

Regina raised a perfect eyebrow and then opened the door to the bathroom and held it open. "Go, before I change my mind," she gestured towards the secondary door that led back into the bar. "Oh, and Miss Swan?"

"Yes, Miss Mills?"

"Please be sensible." 

"I will. Thank you." Emma said with a grateful smile as she left.

Regina smiled as she watched long blonde locks leave before her. She gave it a few moments before she left herself, and headed back towards her own table. She was looking around though to see if she could see Emma and whoever she was with, until she spotted her sat at a table with her friends. She spotted Emma sat right next to Ruby Lucas, and she could also see Belle French, Killian Jones, Tink Green and Neal Cassidy. She was wondering if Emma had run off to her friends to tell them who she bumped into in the bathroom, but she couldn't see any panicked looks on any of the students faces. _Hmm, maybe Emma didn't want to tell them?_

Regina sat back down at her table. She wasn't going to say anything to any of her colleagues, because she knew they would be getting the students thrown out on their asses and making phone calls to all their parents. Regina knew a lot of the students already thought she was a bitch and had often heard people nickname her 'The Evil Queen' and she wasn't about to give her students more of a reason to hate her, so she kept quiet. She picked up her newly filled glass of wine and took a sip.

She smiled at Kathryn and could hear the idle chatter going on at her table, but her eyes had wandered back over towards Emma. She couldn't help but feel she should keep an eye on her and her friends, like she had some sort of responsibility for them. She noticed Ruby spinning an empty bottle around the table, which stopped pointing towards Belle. Regina turned her head back towards her friends when she saw Ruby lean in to kiss Belle.

"Everything okay Regina?" Kathryn had asked when Regina had been a little quiet since coming back from the bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just feeling a little drunk, that's all." she feigned a smile. Once she heard Mal continue talking about her daughter Lily, Regina's eyes once again drifted off in Emma's direction. She noticed the empty bottle was no longer being spun around the table, and that Ruby and Belle had seemed to be sitting closer together and quietly talking to each other. Emma seemed to be doing shots with Killian, Neal and Tink, which made Regina roll her eyes. She really wanted to go over there and stop her for not being sensible. It looked as though Emma was trying to out-drink Killian and Neal, especially when it seemed that Tink had given up with the shots when she held up her hands in a defeat kind of way. She also noticed Neal putting his arm around Emma and putting his hand on her knee. She assumed maybe Emma and Neal were dating? Even though she watched Emma push Neal's hand off of her knee twice.

"So, Regina, what do you think?" Mal asked.

"Hmm?" Her attention was now drawn away from Emma and her friends "About what?" she said taking another sip of wine. 

"About having kids someday?"

"Oh.." Regina hated this topic of discussion, because she already knew she couldn't have children of her own. She was told as such when she was just in her teens that she most likely would not be able to conceive, due to an accident with one of her horses. She had never really told anyone else about that, except for Kathryn, and she had always tried to avoid such conversation. "Oh, yes. Maybe someday." was all she could muster.

Kathryn looked at Regina and knew that topic was always difficult for her to talk about, because she knew Regina _did_ want children of her own "Frederick and I would love a little girl, and to call her Abigail." she had quickly said to help get the others off of asking Regina more questions about children. 

Regina had mouthed the words _'Thank you'_ to Kathryn and given her a small tight lipped, but appreciative smile.

The table Emma and her friends had been sitting at was now empty, and her eyes had quickly darted around the room to find Emma. She noticed her clumsily dancing on the dance floor before falling over her own feet and landing in a heap on the floor. She watched as Ruby and Neal helped Emma off of the floor and what looked like Emma pushing them both off to say she was fine and shout out that she is not drunk.

From what Regina could make out next, it looked as if Ruby had said she was taking Emma home and then it looked like Neal had volunteered instead. She watched as Neal snaked his arm around Emma's waist, as Ruby and Belle had given Emma a kiss on cheek and said goodbye. It seemed that once Killian heard that Emma was leaving, that he'd stopped making out with Tink and patted Emma on the back as a form of goodbye.

Regina watched as Neal led Emma towards the exit, and then she noticed Neal's hand rest on Emma's ass as he led her out of the bar. She turned her attention back towards her own friends and carried on drinking her wine and engaging in small talk, but for some reason she couldn't seem to get her mind off of Emma Swan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will continue with Emma waking up :)


	3. Chapter 3

Having fallen back to sleep after trying to recall her memories of the night before, all Emma had managed to remember up to, was where she had accidentally bumped into Miss Mills in the bathroom of the bar. Most things after that were a bit of a blur and she knew it must have been down to the shots of whiskey she was doing with Neal and Killian. She remembered knocking back shots with the pair and was trying to prove to them that she could out-drink them, whether she succeeded or not, she couldn't remember.

All that had been on her mind as she had drifted off back to sleep were those chocolate brown eyes and those plump burgundy colored lips that belonged to none other than Miss Mills.

The sun was now shining even brighter through Emma's window, and once again the light was hitting her directly in the face, although this time it was the sound of a lawn mower humming outside that actually woke her. “Ugh” Emma had groaned in response, as she rolled over onto her back and feeling the typical hangover headache that she'd already experienced more than a handful of times before, making her whole head pound. 

Although sporting a major headache, Emma couldn't get the dream she'd just had off of her mind. It was a dream about Miss Mills, and it had made her wake up feeling quite turned on. As she clenched her thighs together, she felt the all too familiar ache between her legs, although today she also felt an _un_ familiar ache there too, but she ignored it for the moment, as she closed her eyes and let her mind fill with images of Miss Mills from her dream once again. 

Under her covers, Emma subconsciously trailed her fingers up over her stomach, until she cupped one of her breasts and caressed it. She let out a small hum at the feeling of her nipple hardening against the palm of her hand. Her other hand slowly moving down her stomach, over her abdomen until she reached between her legs. She wasn't even touching herself just yet, but she could feel the heat radiating from her sex, just from where her fingers were hovering. She started trailing her fingers over the skin of her inner thigh. She shifted her legs, dropping her knees to either side of her and pressing the heels of her feet a bit firmer into the mattress, to allow her fingers better access to the heat and wetness between them. She run her fingers through her wet folds, and discovered just exactly how wet the dream she had been having had made her. She felt a little sensitive as her fingers brushed over her entrance, so decided she would just focus on her clit. She drew her fingers up towards the small bundle of nerves and drew lazy circles around the outside of it, just teasing herself a little, before using three of her fingers to rub small, tight circles over it.

Emma bit down on her lip to stifle a moan, as her breathing became slightly ragged. Her other hand was toying with one of her nipples, rolling it between her finger and thumb. Her eyes were still shut tightly, thinking of how she wished it was Miss Mills' fingers rubbing over her clit, instead of her own.. or even more so she wished it was her tongue. Her hips bucked up slightly at the thought, and she could feel her orgasm building as her fingers circled her clit a bit faster. 

“Emma sweetheart, are you awake yet?” Mary Margaret said as she knocked on Emma’s door.

Emma’s hand quickly moved from between her legs and her legs instantly snapped shut. Her eyes opened as she groaned in frustration from being disturbed. Her breathing was still a little labored though as she responded “Yeah Mom, I’m awake.” and she silently pleaded her mother not to come into her bedroom.

The door opened a little and Mary Margaret’s head peeked around the corner of it. “Lunch will be on the table in about five minutes.” she said as she waltzed into Emma’s room further and started to pick up Emma’s dirty clothes from the floor.

Emma’s eyes widened as she was still naked, and she didn’t really want her mother to realize that she was naked under her covers either “Mo-om,” she groaned, turning over onto her side and making sure her blanket was covering her properly “I can do that. I’ll bring it down with me in a minute.” 

It seemed her mother had actually got the hint to leave, because she placed Emma’s jeans on the back of the chair at Emma’s desk “Okay. Well don’t be long. Your father has come back from the station to have lunch with us.” she said with a small smile and headed out of the room, leaving the door wide open.

Emma rolled her eyes at the fact her door was left wide open and she waited until she could hear her mother downstairs and rustling about in the kitchen before she sat up. She glanced at the clock on her bed side, and it was almost midday. She yawned and stretched her arms out above her head, before leaning over to grab the pajamas from the end of her bed, that she would have normally put on before falling asleep. _Was I really that out of it that I forgot to put these on?_ She shrugged and shook her head to herself.

She put the white tank top on, before slipping into the red shorts, and then headed downstairs. Emma's nose turned up a little at the smell of food “Smells great Mom.” she lied as she passed her mother and headed towards the bathroom. Truth was that she felt too hungover to want to eat anything really, although she knew she’d have to force something down.

Once the bathroom door was locked, she walked over to toilet, pulled her shorts down and sat down. She shuddered slightly at the coldness of the seat on her skin, and yawned as she sat there. She winced a little as she wiped herself, realizing once again just how sore she felt, but what she didn't know was why? She shrugged the thought away for now, putting it down to just being a female. She pulled up her shorts and flushed the toilet and walked over to the sink. She flipped on the warm water and squirted some of the awfully bright pink and floral smelling soap that her mother always insisted on buying, into her hands and lathered them up, before rinsing them off under the stream of water.

She looked in the mirror that was above the sink and her eyes widened at the reflection looking back at her. _Holy shit._ The little bit of mascara she’d had on the night before, was now all smeared under her eyes, making her look like some sort of evil panda. She picked up her wash cloth and run it under the water to give her face a quick wipe. She also realized that she had a god awful taste in her mouth and knew it was from the mixture of all the alcohol she had consumed the night before. She picked up the bottle of mouthwash and popped open the cap, quickly taking a sip of the blue liquid and rinsing it around her mouth before spitting it down the sink. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then left the bathroom. She went and joined her father, who was already sitting at the dining table. “Hey Dad.”

“Hey sweetheart. Did you have a good night?” David asked.

Emma didn’t really want to be letting on to her parents that she couldn’t really remember a lot from last night, or the fact that she had a pounding headache from feeling hungover right now, so she just settled on “Yeah, it was great. How is it at the station?” she asked, quickly changing the subject. Her father was the Sheriff of Storybrooke. Emma had often gone to the station with her father as she was growing up, well once she had finally settled into the Nolan's household after being adopted by them at eight years old. Prior to that she had been thrown around from foster family to foster family. It had even taken Emma a good year or two to even start calling Mary Margaret and David, Mom and Dad, but now they were the only parents Emma needed and wanted and she wouldn't have it any other way “I’ll have to stop by one day again. I miss sitting at my desk and pretending to file my own reports” she chuckled.

At that comment David’s eyes lit up. He’d not had a day with Emma at the station for quite some time now, since she had been getting more grown up and juggling with having more school work to do, having a job of her own at Granny’s and hanging out with her friends too “I’d love that Emma. You're welcome there anytime, you know that. You’ll be able to see the few changes I made with your suggestions too.” he said with a beam.

Mary Margaret turned around “Emma? Where is your laundry?” She asked moving the empty laundry basket across the other side of the kitchen with her foot.

“Oh, sorry Mom. I’ll go grab it after lunch.” Emma said with a half guilty look on her face.

“Make sure you do, or I’ll turn the machine on without your things and you’ll be wearing dirty jeans to school tomorrow.” she said firmly as she turned back towards the stove and stirred whatever it was that was in the pot. She picked up a board with a loaf of bread that had been freshly baked that morning, and bought the now cooled loaf of bread along with a sharp knife over to David so he could slice it. She quickly grabbed a dish cloth and picked up the pot of soup off the stove. “Emma, could you grab the bowls please?”

Emma did as she was asked and picked up three soup bowls from the cupboard, and laid them out into the three awaiting spots at the dining table. Without even being asked, she also picked up the tray of butter and the butter knife that was sitting on the counter. 

“This smells delicious Mary Margaret.” David said as he finished slicing up some bread for the three of them and started buttering the slices up.

Mary Margaret smiled proudly as she spooned the homemade chicken and vegetable soup into their bowls. She was always baking and cooking homemade food at the weekends, that was after sorting out her work. She was a teacher, but thankfully for Emma, not at Storybrooke High. Mary Margaret taught the 4th graders at Storybrooke Elementary. Emma always admired how hard working her mother was.

“Thanks Mom.” Emma said with a false smile. She already knew she wouldn’t be able to eat it all. She wished she could take some painkillers for her headache right now too, but knew if she done that, that her parents would wonder why she had a headache to begin with. She poured herself a glass of water from the jug on the table and had a big sip of it and then took a spoonful of her soup.

After about ten minutes of general chatter, listening to her parents talk about work and her parents asking her things about school, Emma had decided she was finished with her lunch. She’d managed to eat most of the soup and half of the bread before she told her mother she was full. She was waiting to be questioned about not eating it all, as normally Emma wasn’t one for leaving food, of any kind, but she looked at her parents and they were hand in hand, and too busy talking to one another about their Anniversary, which was still a few months away. Emma rolled her eyes at their sappiness and excused herself from the table, after pouring herself another glass of water and taking it up to her room with her.

Emma put her glass down on her night stand and went to pick up her cell phone from the usual place, which was normally on charge on her nightstand, but realized it wasn’t there. She heard it vibrate and then she remembered that she had fallen back to sleep this morning with it in her hand. She moved the sheets about and found the device under her pillow. The screen lit up, showing a new message from Ruby: _Did you have a good night though? It seemed like you did. You don’t remember much? Well that would probably be down to all those shots you had Em haha. Oh and Neal took you home._

Emma laid back on her bed and hit reply: _Yeah from what I can remember I had a good night and I have the headache to prove it right now, lol. Soooo, again, tell me, who did you fuck? ;)_

_Well... do you remember who I kissed when we were all playing Spin the Bottle?_

_You mean when YOU were playing Spin the Bottle more like, and yeah, you kissed Belle.  
Wait, OMG, you and Belle slept together?_

Emma sat waiting for Ruby to reply. She knew her friend was keeping her waiting on purpose. Whilst waiting she sat up and pulled open the little drawer in her night stand and picked up the packet of Tylenol that she kept in her room, and popped two of them out. She took a sip of water and swallowed them down, hoping that they’d kick in quick enough to help ease her headache. She laid back onto her pillow when her phone vibrated, indicating that Ruby had replied: _Well wouldn’t you like to know? :P_

 _OMG Rubes, just tell meeee. Don’t make me beg, haha._ Emma replied and then quickly went onto Snapchat and sent Ruby a Snap of herself with the puppy dog filter on and with a pouting look on her face and the caption: _Look, how can you keep this face waiting? Haha._

_Seeing as you asked so nicely, and you know I also can't keep your pretty face waiting... yessss, we did :D_

Emma actually squealed in excitement for her best friend as she replied: _HDSFKSJ, Ruuuuubes! So she really does like you back then :) Eeeeek, I'm so happy for you._

_I think so. Do you think I should ask her out?_

_I don't even know why you're asking me anyway, I already know you're gonna ask her out, lol, but just for clarification, YASSSS girl, ask her out!_

_You know me too well :)_

Emma smiled at that. She did know Ruby too well, and she guessed, well _hoped_ that Ruby was the same with her too.

“Emma, this is the last chance to bring your laundry down.” Mary Margret called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Shit, sorry. I’m doing it right now.” she said sitting up.

“Language Emma.” 

_Oops!_ "Sorry Mom,” Emma replied apologetically, as she got up and began to gather the clothes from her floor. After collecting her clothes from last night and a few other things, she headed back down the metal stairs to where her mother was waiting at the bottom to take them from her. “Sorry.” Emma apologized once again as she handed the bundle of clothes over and then dashed back upstairs, closing her bedroom door behind her this time. 

As she walked back over to her bed, from the corner of her eye she saw something shiny on the floor by her bed. She bent down and picked it up, and her heart stopped once she realized what the foil packet was; an empty condom wrapper. Emma instantly felt sick. She sat down on her bed, feeling a wave of dread wash over her, and she grabbed her phone as quick as she could and sent a text to Ruby: _Wait.. did you say Neal took me home last night?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading so far and I hope you’re enjoying it, and thank you to those that have left me kudos and comments, and have followed my story so far, I really appreciate it :)

Emma took a few deep breaths as she waited for Ruby to text her back. She looked down at the condom wrapper that was still in her hand. _Maybe it was just stuck to the bottom of my boots? Yeah, that must be it.. but then why did I wake up naked? Why do I ache so much down there? No, Neal is one of my best friends, he wouldn't, would he?_ Emma's mind was going crazy with different thoughts and it was making her head pound even more than it already was. She swallowed the lump residing in her throat, but it didn't stop her from feeling sick. As soon as her phone vibrated she looked down at the screen, which was still on the text conversation between herself and Ruby: _Yeah, he did. Why'd you ask?_

Emma dropped her phone and the condom wrapper onto her bed, then slipped off the edge of the bed herself and sunk onto the floor. She took a few more deep breaths, trying to hold back the wave of dread and sickness that was building up inside her, but she knew it wasn't helping. She quickly reached over and grabbed the small waste bin that sat beside her nightstand and threw up into it. After emptying the contents of her stomach, she put the bin down beside her and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. With a shaky hand she reached behind her and picked her phone back off of the bed. She looked down at the still open text messages, and with tear filled eyes she replied: _I think something happened._

Within just a few seconds Emma's phone started to ring. She looked down at the smiling picture of her and her best friend, flashing up on her phone screen and swiped the screen to answer the call. She bought the phone to her ear, but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"Em?" Ruby's worried voice sounded from the other end of the line "Emma? What's happened?" That was when Emma suddenly broke down in tears. She couldn't be sure if anything had even happened at all, but her mind was currently all over the place. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be there as soon as I can" Ruby spoke quickly, and then the line went dead.

Once she knew Ruby had ended the call, the phone just slipped from Emma's hands and fell to the floor with a small thud, as it landed on the fluffy white rug that Emma was sat on. She bought her knees up to her chest and folded her arms over, resting them on top of her knees, as she buried her face into her arms and she silently cried.

It wasn't even ten minutes later when there was a gentle tap on Emma's bedroom window. Emma looked up with tear stained cheeks, to see Ruby at her window. That was often the way Ruby came round, climbing up the fire escape and came in through the big window of Emma's room. Once Ruby had climbed through, she closed the window quietly behind her, as not to alert Emma's parents, even though Mary Margaret and David knew Ruby done that. She went and sat on the floor beside Emma. "Em?" Ruby said softly. The tears that had stopped falling from Emma's eyes, were trying to force their way out once again as she was pulled into Ruby's comforting arms. She gently stroked the messy blonde hair upon her best friends head. "Tell me what's happened?"

After a long pause, Emma sniffled and mumbled against Ruby's shoulder "I can't even be sure," She looked up at Ruby with red rimmed eyes and then reached back and picked up the condom wrapper from her bed "But I found this," she said, handing the empty foil packet to her friend. "It was by my bed."

Ruby glanced down at the wrapper and back up into Emma's watery eyes "You and Neal?" she asked a little confused, knowing her best friend wasn’t interested in guys what so ever. Ruby was the only one who knew that Emma was gay. She had known Emma had mistakenly slept with a guy when she was fourteen and she had absolutely hated it, and it had actually been shortly after that and because of Ruby, that Emma finally admitted to herself that she was in fact, gay. The two of them had admitted it to each other at one of their many sleepovers and had kissed. That side of the relationship between Emma and Ruby had more or less just been experimental and nothing had changed between them what so ever, and they told each other everything. Emma had only been with one other girl besides Ruby, but that had been at a summer camp two years back, and she'd not even heard from the girl since then. Emma had yet to come out to anyone else, especially her parents. She was terrified of disappointing them. "Are you sure?" Ruby asked softly.

"I don't know," Emma replied quietly. She really didn't _want_ to accuse one of her friends for anything, especially not something as serious as this, but she knew there wasn't really any other explanation. "I woke up completely naked this morning. My pajamas hadn't even moved from where I left them last night, how else could that have happened?"

"You were completely shitfaced Em, maybe you just forgot to put them on?" Ruby said, trying to think of any other possible outcomes, other than the one Emma and now her were fearing. "Maybe you just completely passed out and went to sleep?"

"No Rubes," Emma shook her head "Because why would I have taken my underwear off? Shitfaced or not, I really don't think I would have completely stripped naked to go to sleep. I.. I'm also quite sore.. you know.. down there," Emma gestured to between her legs with a slight blush "I couldn't work out why I felt sore at first and I just kinda shrugged it off as, perks of being female," she said with a small eye roll "But now, it kinda fits?" she sighed, not wanting to believe any of this at all. _Maybe Ruby is right, maybe I did just forget to put my pajamas on, and then passed out? Maybe the condom wrapper really was just somehow stuck to the bottom of my boots._ Emma looked up at Ruby "Please tell me I'm just being crazy," she sighed. "This is crazy, right?"

* * *

Regina was roused from her sleep on Monday morning, to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Keeping her eyes closed, she reached over onto her nightstand and fumbled around for the ringing device. She had no idea what the time was or who it was calling her, as she swiped across the screen to answer the call. "Hello?" she mumbled as she tried to hold back a yawn, but failed.

"Regina, I'll need you to go in and open up the school this morning." came the firm voice on the other end of the line.

At that, Regina's eyes finally opened "Mother?" she asked, quickly pulling the phone away from her ear to look at the time "It's not even five am yet. Why are you calling me this early?" she said yawning again.

"So that I can make sure you're up in time. I need you to-"

"Yes Mother, I heard you the first time." she snapped back, cutting her mother off. Regina really wasn't a morning person and she hated being woken up for something that wasn't an emergency, or by being woken up by someone she really didn't care to speak with, like her mother for instance.

"Don't take that tone with me, Regina."

"Sorry Mother," Regina apologized swiftly, not wanting to upset her mother "Why do you need me to open up the school?" she asked as she sat up and leaned over to turn on her bedside lamp. She closed the book that was still resting on her lap, which she must have fallen asleep reading, and run a hand through her dark messy hair. "What's happened to Mr. Gold?" she asked as she took off her reading glasses that she had also fallen asleep wearing.

"Because he's-" there was a giggle that came from her mother that made Regina's eye's widen with horror "-he's currently... indisposed, and he wont be in until a little later" at that Regina heard a slap and shushing sound with a whispered "Stop that."

"Ugh Mother, really?" Regina said screwing her nose up at what she was hearing "I really didn't need to picture.. _that_ , first thing in the morning."

"What are you scoffing for Regina? If you got yourself a nice man, to dote over you like I do, then maybe you wouldn’t be such a prude, dear."

"Yes Mother, okay," Regina rolled her eyes, glad at that moment, that her mother couldn't scold her for rolling her eyes at her. She wasn't a prude at all, but she wasn't about to sit and argue with her Mother "I'll pick up the keys to the school on my way." she sighed.

"Well, we will be a little.. busy, so the keys are already under the flower pot by my front door," There was another giggle from Cora, that made Regina's stomach turn "Don't be late."

The line went dead and Regina once again turned her nose up at her phone, and dropped it onto her bed with disgust. She hated how her mother didn't even say thank you, and she hated even more how she just assumed that Regina would do as she pleased whenever she asked, like she had nothing better to do, but she always replayed the line in her head that her mother once told her before _'I can take this job away from you Regina, just as quickly as I gave it to you'_ and that was why she always done as she was asked in fear of losing her job. A job that she loved dearly and had worked hard to get, although she was sure most of the faculty, thought that Cora just gave her the job because she was her daughter.

Regina yawned as she glanced at her phone screen, indicating that it was only 4:48am. Normally she wouldn't be getting up for work for at least another hour or so yet. She swung her legs out of her bed, turning the bed up as she did every morning and made her way into her en-suite bathroom. She slipped out of her black silk nightdress and turned on the hot water of the shower. She hummed in delight at the feel of the hot water washing over her skin as she stepped under it.

About forty-five minutes later Regina was walking down the stairs, hair and makeup perfectly done and she was dressed in white shirt and a black pantsuit. Most mornings she would head straight into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee or two, before she left for work, but today she just wanted to get the keys to the school from her mother's house and go on her way. She picked up her purse and the papers she had spent her Saturday grading and headed out of the door into the early morning darkness. She shivered a little at the slight chill in the air as she walked over to her her black Mercedes, unlocked it and got inside, dumping her purse and the papers on the seat beside her.

The streetlights were dimly lighting the still silent streets, and after a few minutes of driving, Regina pulled up outside her mother's house and got out. The house was just as big, if not bigger than her own house. She quietly pushed open the large iron gate and walked down the path that let to the front door. She lifted up the flower pot that she knew the keys would be under, grabbed them and left, not wanting to stick around and risk hearing anything she didn't want to hear. Once back inside the comfort and the warmth of her car, she tried her hardest to hold back a yawn. She decided that she needed caffeine and stat. She looked at the time, and it was almost 6am. _Granny's._ She thought to herself. Granny's Diner was always open.

With the radio on quietly in the car, Regina drove the two blocks and pulled up outside Granny's Diner. The street lights were just starting to turn off as it started to get lighter. She pushed open the door to the diner, that chimed indicating that someone was entering and Granny popped her head around the corner from the kitchen. "What can I get you?" the graying lady said with what seemed like a false smile when she realized it was Regina.

Regina was certain that most people in this town hated her all because of her mother, but regardless, she gave a tight lipped smile back "Coffee to go please." she asked, turning around to glance around the diner. It was then that she spotted those familiar blonde locks of Emma Swan, who was sat with the granddaughter of Granny's, Ruby Lucas.

Emma chose that moment to glance up from nursing her cocoa, and look straight into the eyes of Miss Mills. She smiled a little, and quickly looked back down at her cocoa.

Regina didn't even have a chance to return the smile before Emma had looked back down.

"Here you go," Granny said placing the to go cup of coffee on the counter "I added a dash of the vanilla syrup that I know you like."

"Thank you." Regina replied with a genuine smile, as she handed over the couple of dollars. She picked up her coffee, and headed for the door.

"Oh, hi Miss Mills." Ruby spoke up, as she spotted the teacher, which made Emma look up once again.

"Ruby, Emma," Regina regarded each of them with a nod "You girls are up early." She asked. As she was closer, she thought that it looked like Emma hadn't slept all night.

In that moment, all Emma was hoping was, that Miss Mills didn't mention Saturday night and their run in, in the bathroom. "Just thought we'd get an early start, that's all." she added with a shrug.

"I hope you girls weren't out partying all night." Regina said with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't going to mention the fact that she caught Emma and her underage friends in The Rabbit Hole the other night.

"No, no, nothing like that." Ruby chuckled.

"Okay," Regina smirked, not sure if she actually believed the two, and then took a sip of her coffee. "Well, I'll see you both at school." she smiled and headed out of the diner.

"Bye Miss Mills." Ruby smiled, then glanced at Emma who was sat stirring her cocoa with a spoon.

Emma hadn't really slept that night and Ruby had suggested that Emma stayed with her for the night, just so she wasn't alone. Every time she had closed her eyes, new visions started playing in her head of what could have happened with Neal, if anything happened at all. Ruby's hand being placed over her own had snapped Emma out of her thoughts with a slight jump, and she looked up at her friend with a forced smile. "Everything will be okay Em. We'll find out what happened."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." Emma admitted and took a sip of a her almost cold cocoa.

A couple of hours later, Ruby pulled up into the school parking lot in her red truck. "Hopefully I can start saving for my own car,” Emma smiled “Like I know you didn't pick me up today, but at least once I have my own car, you wont have to pick me up every morning and I wont have to rely on you to take me places." Emma grinned.

"Yeah, but you're my best friend Em, you know I don't mind." Ruby smiled back at her.

"You will mind once you have Belle to be taking around everywhere." Emma said with a nudge to Ruby, as they gathered their bags and got out of the truck.

"Yeah, okay, maybe I will mind then," Ruby chuckled, glad that Emma had been distracted for the last hour, from thinking about what could have happened with Neal, that was until Ruby looked over into the courtyard and saw Killian and Neal mucking around by the fountain. "Emma." she said quietly and gestured her head in the boys direction.

Emma knew it was coming. She knew she had to face Neal, and that she couldn’t just avoid him. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and they carried on walking towards them. She glanced at Ruby and sighed.

"Hey, I'll be waiting right here, okay?" Ruby said quietly so no one could hear. "Hey." she smiled at Killian and Neal, and then sat on the edge of the fountain, so she could wait for Emma.

Emma felt nervous, but she knew this had to be done. This conversation needed to be had "Neal, um.. can.. can we talk?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know there’s not been much interaction between Regina and Emma yet, but it’s coming, I promise. When I planned this out in my head, I didn’t quite realise how slow burn it’d be, haha. Next chapter we’ll find out what happened with Emma and Neal, but will he tell the truth?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning in this chapter, for the mention of non-consensual sex.

“Yeah sure.” Neal replied with a what seemed like a genuine smile on his face.

Emma glanced back towards Ruby one last time, and she had given Emma a supportive smile in return, letting her know that she would be right there for her, after talking with Neal. Emma looked back in Neal’s direction, and lead him over to where it was a bit quieter and there were a few less students around. The last thing she wanted was for anyone else to hear this conversation. She sat down on the other side of the large fountain.

“So? What’s up Swanny?” Neal asked once he sat down beside Emma.

Emma didn’t know if it was because she felt so nervous and uncomfortable about this upcoming conversation, but she was certain Neal had sat as close to her as possible. She shuffled over slightly, making sure there was a bit of a gap between them. She looked down at her hands, which were now fidgeting in her lap. She didn’t even know how to start this conversation off, even though she had spent all morning rehearsing in her head what she was going to say. No matter how it played out in her head, everything lead towards a direct accusation. She didn’t want to be directly accusing him at all, just in case he really was innocent. Emma flinched, being bought back from her thoughts when Neal had placed his hand over the top of her fidgety ones. She quickly moved her hand away, looking like Neal’s hand had burnt hers.

“Emma? What’s wrong?” Neal asked confusingly, as he pulled his hand away. 

Emma blinked and then looked up at him, and it actually looked and sounded like he was concerned. _Maybe nothing really did happen?_ She knew that she still needed to get this off her chest before her head exploded. Her chest felt really tight and there were butterflies in her stomach, although it currently felt like these butterflies had grown talons and were clawing at her insides to try and get out. She took a deep breath “What happened on Saturday night?” she asked with a quiet and more shakier voice than she had anticipated.

He automatically barked out a laugh “Oh my god, you got so completely smashed. I knew you wouldn’t be able to out drink me and-” 

“You took me home, right?” Emma said sharply, cutting him off.

Neal ignored what Emma had even said and carried on with what he was saying. “I even bet Killian that you wouldn’t be able to out drink me. He thought you would be able to. He owes me ten bucks actually.” 

“Neal, did you take me home?” She asked again. 

“Oi Killian, don’t forget you owe me ten bucks.” Neal shouted over towards the other side of the fountain where Killian was sat talking with Tink.

“Neal?” Emma said a bit louder, but not wanting to draw attention towards them. “Will you just fucking listen.” Her voice was a lot more firmer this time, but she could feel herself getting angry.

Neal raised his hands in a mock defense sort of way “Whoa, chill out there Ems.”

Neal doing that, had made Emma ball her hands into firsts and she started digging her finger nails into the palms of her hands, to try and ease a bit of the anger and tension she could feel building up inside of her. She was already getting tired of this conversation and decided to finally just come out with it “Did we _sleep_ together?” she asked with a hard but low voice.

“Yeah, of course we did. You know that.” Neal replied with ease.

Emma felt that familiar feeling of sickness rising in her stomach again. “No, no I don’t fucking know. Why the hell would I be _asking_ you if I _knew_ that Neal?” She growled at him as she put her face into her hands and sighed. Tears were stinging the back of her eyes but she was _not_ going to cry in front of him. She wouldn’t allow herself to look so vulnerable. All she wanted to do in that moment was run, but she felt as if her ass was glued to the spot she was sitting. 

“What’s the problem? You seemed to enjoy it, even if you did just lay there and let me do all the work,” He chuckled. “I even text you when I got home saying I had a good night and you replied _‘me too’_ so what? You didn’t have a good night then?” 

Emma knew for sure that she wouldn’t have willingly had sex with Neal, knowing full well that she had no interest in him or any guys for that matter, but she wasn’t about to just come out to him when no one else apart from Ruby knew. She wanted to tell people on her own terms about her sexuality, not have it forced out of her. She blinked again “Did I agree?” 

“Agree to what?”

Emma could feel herself get more angry over this whole ordeal “To what? Are you fucking serious right now?” she spat, and then took another deep breath “To sex.. did I say yes to having sex with you?” she said slowly and firmly so he’d understand what she meant.

Neal shifted in his spot, and now he had a look of worry on his face “Yeah you did.. well, it wasn’t exactly a yes, but, you were hugging me as I was trying to help you into bed and you kissed me on the cheek to say thank you for helping you. You.. you told me to stay, and you kept telling me not to leave you, so I didn’t. I thought-”

Emma couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Well you thought wrong.” She shouted this time, not caring who heard. Finally she stood up from the spot which just a few moments ago she had felt stuck to. Her right hand balled into a tight fist and before she even had the chance to stop herself, she punched Neal square in the face and he was falling backwards into the fountain. She grabbed hold of her fist, it was hurting. She could now feel quite a few pairs of eyes on her, including the eyes of her friends over the other side of the fountain. 

“What the fuck Emma.” Neal shouted, as he sat in the water with a dumbfound look on his face. There was blood trickling from his nose. 

Emma was visibly breathing heavily from feeling so angry, as she glanced around at the many sets of eyes looking at her. Then she darted off into the school.

Regina was stood tapping her fingers against the the printer, impatiently waiting for the printer to finish spitting out the load of quiz papers that she was copying. She was feeling rather annoyed that the coffee she’d had still hadn’t kicked in yet, and she made a mental note to go make herself another one in the faculty lounge before her classes started in ten minutes. Once the printer beeped, indicating that it had finished it’s job, she picked up the pile of papers and started to make her way back towards her classroom.

Just as Regina turned the corner, someone run straight into her and the papers she’d had in her hand, scattered to the floor. She sighed and rolled her eyes as looked down, recognizing the familiar head of blonde hair “Miss Swan, isn’t about time you looked where you were going? This is _twice_ in less than a week that you have quite literally _run_ into me,” she said sharply and knelt down to gather the papers. “What are you doing running through the hallways anyway? Surely you can’t be in that much of a hurry to get to class, seeing as the bell hasn’t even rung yet.”

When Emma realized who she had run in to, _again_ , she automatically went straight down onto her hands and knees to help pick up the papers that she’d made Miss Mills drop. She sniffled “I.. I’m sorry.” she whispered, keeping her head down. All she wanted, was to head to the girls bathroom’s, just so she could have a few minutes to compose herself before she had to endure a days worth of classes.

Regina had actually been waiting for one of Emma Swan’s usual sarcastic remarks, but instead she’d heard the sniffle and the quiet tone of Emma’s voice. She tilted her head to one side, trying to get a glance at Emma’s face to confirm her suspicions, but she couldn’t see much past the long, blonde locks that were draped over her face. _She’s upset. I wasn’t that harsh was I?_ “Well, just look where you are going in future.” she responded, a lot more softly this time.

Emma finished collecting as many of the papers from the floor as she could, before standing back up and finally looking into Miss Mills’ face. 

Regina could see the glazed tearful look in Emma’s eyes and could see that she was visibly upset. She knew that is must be to do with something else “Is everything okay Emma?” she asked quietly with a concerned look, as she took back the handful of papers that Emma had picked up.

Emma opened her mouth slightly, about to lie and say that she was fine, but before any words could come out, “Ems?” Ruby had breathlessly caught up to her and stopped dead in her tracks when she realized Miss Mills was standing there, and thinking that Emma was in trouble. 

Charging up behind Emma was a dripping wet, bloodied nose, Neal. Emma hadn’t yet looked back to see Neal coming up behind her, but she did notice Miss Mills’ gaze go from her, to looking over her shoulder at someone behind her.

“Mr Cassidy, would you care to explain why on earth you are trailing water throughout the hallways?” Regina asked, with a raised eyebrow, her voice gone hard once again.

Neal stopped and wiped his bloody nose with the back of his wet shirt sleeve “Why don’t you ask that stupid bitch? She’s the one who just fucking punched me in the face and made me fall into the fountain.” he growled and pointed his wet hand towards Emma.

“Mr Cassidy, I wont tolerate that kind of language. Go and see Vice Principal Spencer, and explain to _her_ why you chose to go for a swim in our school fountain.” Regina said signaling in the direction of Kathryn’s office. She’d normally send students to Principal Gold, but she knew he still wasn’t here yet.

“Oh, for fuck sake, this is her fault though. I’m the one who’s been assaulted here and-”

Regina cut him off “Go. _Now._ I don't want to hear it.” She heard Ruby snickering slightly “Miss Lucas, do you wish to be joining him?” 

Ruby’s eyes widened and then she shook her head “No, Miss Mills. Sorry.” She had been laughing at the whole swimming in the fountain thing.

From the corner of her eyes, Regina saw Emma flinch in her spot as she turned back to look at her. Her brow furrowed slightly when she realized Emma was staring down at the floor. “Miss Swan?” She waited for Emma to look up at her. “Emma?” She asked softly when Emma hadn’t responded. When Emma finally looked up, Regina saw the glazed, tearful look in Emma’s eyes. _Maybe they’ve just broken up?_ After all, she had remembered seeing Emma and Neal sort of looking close at The Rabbit Hole on Saturday evening, or so she thought.

Emma still didn’t say anything as she looked into the now softened eyes of her teacher. She could feel her eyes stinging as she was trying her hardest to hold back the impending tears. She blinked hard to stop them from falling, but a single tear sneakily escaped her closed eyes and down onto her cheek. She quickly batted it away with the back of her hand. 

The bell sounded, indicating that students needed to head to their classes. “I.. I have to go.” she said and hurriedly walked past Miss Mills and down the corridor.

“Emma?” Regina called out, watching as the back of Emma’s head disappeared around the corner. She had wanted to go after her, just to make sure she was okay, but she couldn’t as she had her own class to get to. She would normally have headed straight to Principal Gold’s office to notify him of an incident like that between two students, but as she recalled from her mother, he was... _busy._ Regina shuddered at the thought, as she continued on her way to her classroom.

It was now second from last period. Emma had History next. Normally she really looked forward to History class because she had Miss Mills. Although she did actually concentrate on her work, she always somehow managed to focus on Miss Mills too. She always found she could watch her plump, lipstick painted, lips whenever she spoke as well as starting into those chocolate colored eyes of hers. She also loved the way Miss Mills dressed, which was either in a tight pencil skirt or suit pants, that perfectly accented her ass. More often than not, Emma found her eyes drawn to the older woman’s ass whenever she’d face the white board or walk past her. Emma had almost died in her seat a couple of weeks ago, because she had needed help with her work, and Miss Mills had been stood right over her, and when Emma had glanced up, she could clear as day see Miss Mills’ hardened nipples protruding through her bra and blouse, due to the cold weather that day. 

Emma really hadn’t paid much attention in any of her classes, after the events of this morning. She had been anxiously waiting all day to be called upon by Principal Gold or Vice Principal Spencer, but that hadn’t yet happened. She had somehow avoided seeing Neal all day too, but she knew he was also in her History class, so that alone was bothering her. She snapped out of her thoughts when the bell rung. Sighing, she grabbed her bag and headed straight out of Mr Booth’s class, without even listening to what the man was saying about Math homework. 

She slowly walked along the hallways in the direction of her History class. Stopping just outside of the classroom she leaned up against one of the lockers. She couldn’t quite bring herself to walk straight in and go and sit down, not yet at least. She turned her head when Belle walked up to her “Hey Ems, you coming in?”

Emma nodded with a feigned smile “Yeah.” she said as she pushed herself off of the locker she was leaning on, and walked into the classroom with her friend, and went and took her assigned seat. She glanced around the room and noticed Neal wasn’t there, and with a slight sigh of relief, she sat down and looked at the clock. _One hour and I’ll be out of here._

Regina walked over to the door of the class and was about to close it, when Neal came bounding in. The door had slightly bumped into her, which made her roll her eyes “Go and take your seat Mr Cassidy.”

“Sorry Miss, I was at the ER, because _someone_ broke my nose.” He said emphasizing on the word someone, whilst glaring in Emma’s direction. 

Emma had looked over when she had heard Miss Mills say Neal’s name. She flinched a little when he had spoken and said about his nose. _Good, and I’d fucking break it all over again if I could._ She had glared back at him as he took his seat next to his friend Felix. She dug her nails into the palm of her hand, until he was out of her sight. She glanced down at her hand, noticing the little crescent shaped imprints from her nails on her skin, and sighed. She bought her left elbow up onto her desk and was rested her head on her hand. She picked up a pen and started doodling into her notebook.

Regina walked around the classroom, handing everyone back their now graded papers. She then walked back around handing everyone a quiz paper. “Okay, you all have an hour to finish the quiz that I’ve just handed to each of you.” She went and sat back at her desk. She looked over in Emma’s direction and saw her scribbling her name onto the paper.

An hour later the bell rung, and Regina stood up from her desk. “Seeing as we are still learning about the history of London, I’d like you all read up on The Great Fire of London tonight. Leave your tests on your desks and I will collect them once you leave.”

Once again Emma jumped from her thoughts at the sound of the bell and at Miss Mills talking. She looked down at her paper and realized that all she had written on it was her name. _Shit!_ She hadn’t even realized she had been so out of it for the entire lesson. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts about this thing with Neal. She slammed her pen down onto her desk in frustration, and instantly turned the test over so no one could see she hadn’t done a single thing on it. She sighed and started to put her things back into her bag.

“Oh, Miss Swan? Can you stay behind please?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you all think of this so far? Do you all want more?  
> Also, if anyone has Twitter, then I'm @EvilRealKelly feel free to come and say hi :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a little longer to post. I've been too distracted by reading some of the amazing SwanQueen Supernova fics, and looking at the amazing art on there too. If you haven't read any yet, then you totally should check them out. Check out sqsupernova.tumblr.com for the updates every day, or look on Twitter at @sqsupernova :)

Emma had just stood up to leave before she heard Miss Mills ask her to stay behind. _I should have known this was coming. I’m in so much trouble._ She rolled her eyes towards her teacher, thankful that she wasn’t looking, and then with a huff, she slumped back down into her seat, firmly dumping her bag back onto the floor in annoyance. She put her elbows on her desk and rested her head in her hands. All she wanted to do was go home, bury her face in her pillow and cry. Since finding out what actually happened with Neal she hadn’t even shed a tear, even though she was totally and completely upset, she wasn’t going to break down in front of anyone. She always kept her walls up and often found it heard to break down in front of just anyone. She didn’t look up, but she could hear Neal and his friend Felix snickering loudly as they left the room, and she knew it was because Miss Mills had asked her to stay behind. She wasn’t sure how long she’d end up being kept behind for, so she quietly took her cell phone out of her jeans pocket to send a text to Ruby: _Don’t wait for me today. Miss Mills has asked me to stay behind, so I’ll walk or get the bus home. I’m in deep shit. I really shouldn’t have punched Neal. I broke his nose, you know?_

With a tight lipped smile as the last of the students left the classroom, Regina then closed the door behind them. She looked over towards Emma, but she couldn’t quite make out how Emma looked, as once again her hair was covering the side of her face. She could tell from her body language, that she looked utterly dejected. She silently made her way around the class, collecting the quiz papers, but looking over every few seconds to see if Emma had lifted her head from her hands at all.

Emma looked at her phone as it quietly vibrated in her hand: _Ems, that was the least that asshole deserved. Text me when you get home, okay? Love you._ The corners of her mouth turned upwards into a light smile at the reply from her best friend, loving the fact that Ruby cared so much. She swiftly shoved the device back into her pocket, as she heard Miss Mills making her way around the room. It was sort of making her nervous at the fact that Regina hadn’t yet said a word to her. _Surely the silence isn't a good thing. Geez, how much fucking trouble am I in?_

As Regina approached Emma’s desk, she stopped and cleared her throat to make Emma aware that she was standing there. “Miss Swan, your test paper please.” She asked, holding out her hand for the paper.

Emma didn’t even look up, she didn’t want to see the look of disappointment in Miss Mills’ face. With a sigh, she picked up the paper that she had put face down and handed the unattempted thing to Miss Mills. _Not only am I gonna be in shit for breaking Neal’s nose, I’m gonna be in even more shit for not doing this too._ She felt the piece of paper slide from her fingers as it was taken, and flinched just a little. She chewed on her bottom lip as she waited for a response.

"Thank you." Regina had actually known the whole time that Emma hadn’t written a thing on her quiz, because every time she had looked up from her laptop or from the work she was grading throughout the lesson, and had glanced over towards Emma, she had been sat resting her chin on her fist and staring out of the window in deep thought, whilst flicking her pen up and down with her fingers. She knew right away that the behavior was very unlike Emma, and that she had never known her to not get on with her work before. She’d make Emma stay after school another day or during a free period to complete the quiz, as all the tests went towards their final grade. Regina stayed silent whilst she walked over to her desk to put down the papers she’d collected. She made her way back over to Emma, noticing that she still hadn’t even looked up yet and frowned slightly. Pulling the seat from the desk next to Emma’s over, she sat down beside her. “Emma?” She gently placed her hand on Emma’s shoulder, but retreated anxiously when she felt Emma flinch. 

Emma still hadn’t looked up. She hadn’t even meant to flinch, she just hadn’t been expecting the gentle gesture from Miss Mills. She could feel herself getting a little choked up in response. _Please don’t cry. Please don’t cry. Please don’t cry._ She kept repeating over and over again in her head, as she swallowed the building lump in her throat.

“Emma, are you okay?” Regina asked softly. She knew that it was a stupid thing to ask, because she could clearly tell Emma was very much not okay, but she felt she had to ask the question anyway. She cautiously placed her hand back on Emma’s arm again.

Emma felt the soft touch of Miss Mills’ hand on her arm again. She quickly realized that she hadn’t flinched this time and that she had accepted the gesture, and without meaning to she choked back a sob. She really didn’t want to cry. She begged herself not to cry, but in that moment, she realized again that she hadn’t cried yet today, not since finding out what exactly had happened on Saturday night, but she couldn’t stop the tears that were now slowly starting to leak from her eyes. She folded her arms across her desk and buried her face in between them.

Regina felt a tug on her heartstrings. It wasn’t often any students cried in front of her because of being genuinely broken up about something, and if any students did actually get upset, it was normally because she had been the one to make them upset to begin with. Even though Regina had always heard things, most of the time she really wasn’t that interested in any of the student drama that went on around the school. Most of the students thought she was quite a hard bitch, and thought that she never showed any emotion, so other than help with their work, she never had any of them go to her with a personal problem. Emma of all people she had never expected to be now sat in front of her crying. _Why do I even care so much?_ She couldn’t actually figure out why she cared so much. What was it about Emma Swan that was now all of a sudden making her a give a damn? All she actually felt like doing was wrapping her arms around Emma, and pulling her into a comforting hug, but after having Emma flinch a moment ago when she had touched her arm, and the fact that it was something she really shouldn’t do, she stopped herself from doing just that. “Emma, you can talk to me.” she said softly, as her thumb instinctively rubbed back and fourth across Emma’s arm.

Emma felt so frustrated for allowing herself to cry and show weakness, in front of Miss Mills of all people, but she couldn’t stop the tears, which were dropping onto the sleeve of her jacket and rolling off it and onto her desk. She hated crying in front of anyone. She had learned the hard way to not show her emotions in front of others when she was in foster care. Often if she had shown any sort of emotion in front of the older kids, they had beat her for it, so she had quickly learned to cry _only_ in the comfort of her room, or when she’d had to share a room with other kids, it was to quietly cry into her pillow. Even after being adopted by the Nolan’s, she was afraid to show any sort of emotion in front of Mary Margaret and David in fear of being beaten for it, or locked in the basement, as the previous family before the Nolan’s had done to her. As she got older she’d tend to only cry in front of those she trusted most, which to this day, so far, had only been her mother and Ruby, and this situation wasn’t something she could go home and tell her mother about, although she knew her parents would probably end up finding out later that day that she had broken another students nose, and _that_ , she knew she’d have to come up with some sort of excuse for as to why it happened.

Emma decided she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t open up to anyone else. Of course she liked Miss Mills, and of course she trusted her, but she was her teacher. She knew that Miss Mills would have to report something like this, even though Emma now considered it to have been entirely her fault that it had happened. _I need to leave. I have to get out of here._ She lifted her head, quickly wiping the tear streaks from her cheeks. She still couldn’t bring herself to look Miss Mills in the face. She slid her chair back across the floor, with a loud scrape and stood up, grabbing her bag from by her feet.

“Emma?” Regina asked with slight concern and stood up herself.

Emma took a step back “Just.. just leave me alone.” she said with a wobbly voice, then pushed past Regina and headed for the door.

Regina rushed over to the door, and even though she knew she shouldn’t technically keep students hostage in her classroom, she also knew that she couldn’t let Emma leave, not like this, not in the state she was in. She at least needed to make Emma aware that if she needed to talk, that she could talk to her. She put her arm out, until her hand hit the door that was now slightly ajar from Emma having just opened it and quickly pushed it shut again. “Emma, wait..”

After having all her lessons during the day to sit and think about the situation with Neal, she was certain that it was all her own fault. _I never should have got so drunk. This is all my fault. I gave Neal the wrong impression._ Not only was Emma really upset, she was angry and frustrated, not just at herself, but at Neal too. She wanted to go home, but it was clear to her that Miss Mills wasn’t going to let her go anywhere just yet. Her hand balled into a fist and just like this morning, she couldn’t stop herself as she punched the wall beside the door. Her fist had already been hurting from punching Neal in the nose, and now it hurt even more, but she didn’t care. “It’s all my fault,” she frustratingly started to sob, not even thinking about what she was saying or doing. She punched the wall a second time, even harder this time “I’m so fucking stupid.” She pulled her arm back and went to punch the wall for a third time, but before she could do it, she felt a pair of arms envelope her from behind.

Regina wrapped her arms around Emma to stop her from punching the wall again, even though she could feel Emma trying to fight her embrace so she could lash out again, but Regina wasn’t going to let her. She could already see the redness and bruising starting to appear on Emma’s knuckles and knew if she had of punched the wall again that it would have broken the skin “Emma, stop!” She cried out and heard that her own voice sounded a little shaky, but it was because she was hurting for Emma, even though she didn’t know what was wrong. All she did know is that she didn’t like seeing Emma like this, and she wanted to comfort her. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Suddenly she felt Emma’s legs give way, but she didn’t take her arms away, instead her arms stayed put. She held Emma as she sunk to the floor and Regina carefully sat down with her, keeping Emma safely in her arms. She didn’t care that she was currently sat on the dirty floor of her classroom, in an expensive Chanel pant suit, with her arms wrapped around a sobbing student. 

Emma cried harder as she sunk to the floor. She didn’t care right now that it was her teacher that was holding her, all she knew was that she needed the comfort. She turned her body slightly and leaned into Regina’s neck, burying her face into the collar of her jacket as the tears continue to fall. She hadn’t expected herself to break down quite like this in front of anyone, let alone Miss Mills.

Regina could feel the backs of her own eyes sting slightly, and swallowed as she felt Emma lean into her. She could feel Emma trembling from where she was crying so much. She bought her right hand up to the mass of blonde hair in front of her and gently started stroking her head. “Emma, I’m here, okay?” she said softly. She knew how this scene would look to another student or another teacher if they had walked in, but it was a risk she was willing to take to stop Emma taking her upset and anger out on the wall and hurting herself anymore than she clearly was already hurting. 

She held onto Emma for at least ten minutes, or so it seemed. It was a long, ten minutes where to be honest, she felt kind of useless, because she didn’t know what was wrong and all she could do was hold onto Emma until her crying subsided. She felt Emma’s trembling come to a stop, except for the odd sniffle that made Emma’s whole body shudder. She didn’t want to break the silence first. _Maybe I should say something? But maybe I should let Emma speak first?_

Emma had started calming down. She still had her eyes screwed shut and her face hidden against the comfort of a neck, a neck she momentarily forgot who it belonged to. She opened her eyes and without pulling away she remembered exactly where she was. Her heart beat all that much faster when she realized whose arm’s were still wrapped around her. She didn’t want to move but she knew she was going to have to sooner or later, although she liked the warmth and comfort of Miss Mills’ arm around her, and the fact that her hair was still being stroked. With her face still nestled against Regina’s neck, she sniffed again but this time she actually took in the scent of the older woman. She smelled nice, really nice. She couldn’t quite work out what exactly her hair smelled like. It was really sweet. Vanilla maybe? She could also smell the strong scent of her perfume, which she guessed was probably some expensive brand. She pulled back and wiped her tear stained cheeks, noticing that her tears had wet the collar of Miss Mills’s jacket. She quickly pulled out of Regina’s arms “I’m really sorry.” she said quietly and getting to her feet.

Regina dropped her hand from stroking Emma’s hair and shook her head a little watching as Emma got to her feet. “It’s quite alright dear,” she said softly, getting herself off of the floor and brushed down her pants. “Emma?” she asked as she took a step closer to her. When Emma had lifted her gaze, she could see her eyes were red rimmed and still filled with fresh tears, that were trying not to spill over. She knew this question was going to sound a bit forward, but she thought it was best to just ask it “Has.. has something serious happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you think Emma is going to tell Regina, or not?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone who has left me kudos and comments and have bookmarked. It's because of that, that makes me want to keep writing my awfully written story, haha.

Emma’s eyes widened slightly as tears prickled at them. Her breathing had noticeably quickened, and she bit down on her bottom lip to stop it from trembling. She opened her mouth a little and went to speak, but no words would come out. 

After a few moments of silence, Regina she wasn’t even sure if Emma had even heard her, so she thought she’d ask the question again. “Emma, has something serious happened?” She watched as Emma blinked and saw the tear fall onto her still rosy cheek from breaking down on her. “You can talk to me.” she said softly, and hoped she sounded reassuring enough to get Emma to open up to her. She knew hardly any students, if any at all, had ever heard her use a tone this soft and gentle before.

Emma swallowed thickly and wiped the tear away with a shaky hand. Her mouth opened again and started to nod “Ye-” then stopped herself “I... I have to go now.” She said hurriedly, picking her bag up from the floor and opening the door to the classroom for the second time. She rushed out of the room without even looking back behind her. 

_Had she been about to say yes?_ “Em-” she started as Emma opened the door “-ma.” she breathed out to herself once she saw the blonde hair disappear down the hallway. She was certain that Emma was about to say yes, that something serious had indeed happened. She sighed as she was left alone in the classroom. She looked up at the ceiling and she run her hand through her dark, silky hair, feeling completely and utterly helpless. She was concerned and honestly, she was a little worried too, but what more could she do? She couldn’t force it out of her, and make Emma speak to her. She walked back over to her desk and sat down, nudging the mouse pad of her laptop and waking it up from it’s sleep. She clicked onto her lesson plan for the rest of the week, that she had needed to finish, but she just couldn’t get her mind off Emma, and seeing her lash out at the wall and then break down in tears like that. What had happened?

Emma headed straight for the exit of the school, and pushed open the doors, walking straight out into fine rain that she hadn’t even noticed yet. She leaned over the railings of the steps that led up to the doors she just came through and took a few deep breaths, willing herself not to throw up as she looked down at the hedges below her. After a few moments of deep breathing she felt a little calmer. She took one last deep breath as she pushed herself off of the cold metal and made her way down the steps. As soon as she reached the bottom step, the rain started coming down heavier “Oh for fuck sake.” she grumbled, putting her head down, to try and avoid her face from getting wet. She didn’t have an umbrella or even a coat with a hood for that matter. She never expected to need one, as she normally always went home with Ruby, and the few times that Ruby couldn’t take her, she’d make sure she had the right coat or an umbrella with her. Before she realized it was raining, she had planned on walking home but now decided that she definitely wasn’t going to walk home in this weather. _Bus it is then._ She tapped the pocket of her jeans as she walked along, to make sure she still had change in there, and made her way along to the bus shelter, located just outside of the school grounds.

Emma glanced at the bus shelter once she reached it “Seriously?” she said out loud, knowing no one was around to hear her. “Are you fucking kidding me?” The bus shelter was missing it’s roof, and all that was there was tape streamed across it, the kind of tape to let people know that it was going to be replaced soon. She kicked the row of seats in frustration and then peered up at the bus timetable. “Okay, five minutes shouldn’t be so bad.” she said to herself, and huddled herself in the far corner of the shelter, which looked the most driest. She was glad that the bus stop at the other end was right outside of her apartment building, so she could just head straight inside and not have to endure walking in the rain and getting anymore wet than she already was.

Regina’s classroom door being pushed open knocked her out of her thoughts. She didn’t even know how long she had been sitting there, staring blankly at her laptop for. All she knew was that the whole time she had been thinking about Emma.

“Sorry Miss Mills, I didn’t know you were still in here. I.. I can come back.” Leroy, the short bearded janitor said. He’d always been a little afraid of Regina, well he’d been afraid of Cora actually, so that automatically meant he was afraid of Regina too.

She closed the lid of her laptop, realizing she wasn’t going to get anything done right now. “No no, it’s fine, I was just about to head home anyway.” 

Leroy wheeled in his cleaning trolley “It’s raining out, so take your umbrella.” he advised as he got to work, giving the floors a sweep over.

“Oh.. Thank you.” she nodded at the usually grumpy man, as a way of thanks. She picked up her purse, taking her car keys out and putting them in her jacket pocket for easy access, and then put the purse strap over her shoulder. After grabbing the quiz papers off her desk, she walked over to the coat rack beside the classroom door. As she picked up her umbrella from it, and frowned as she glanced at the now slight dent in the wall, where Emma had punched it, not only once, but twice. It wasn’t really that noticeable, well, it wouldn’t be to anyone else, but it was to her. She was glad she had managed to stop Emma from punching it a third time, and not only injuring her hand more but putting a noticeable hole in the wall, which would end up needing to be repaired and then Mr Gold would want to know why there is a hole in the wall, and she didn’t exactly want to have that conversation with him, especially when she despised the man.

Regina left her classroom and made her way through the hallways. She normally went to see Kathryn before heading home, but today, she just wanted to go straight home. Even though she didn’t know what was wrong with Emma, the whole situation had traumatized her a little bit. She knew whatever it was, that of course Emma was more traumatized, but in the few years working at the school, Regina had never had dealt with any kind of situation like that before. She also didn’t know how she would react when finding out what it was that happened with Emma.. _if I ever find out_ , she thought. Once she reached the exit, she pushed the door open, and opened up her umbrella as she stepped out into the rain. When she got to her car, she pulled her keys from her pocket and unlocked her Mercedes. She collapsed her umbrella and got in, trying her best to keep the papers in her hand dry. She dumped them and her purse onto the seat beside her and put the dripping wet umbrella into the foot well on the passenger side, and closed the door. She buckled herself in, started the engine and reversed out of the parking space, making her way across the pretty much empty parking lot, and heading out of the school.

Emma was already angry, upset and frustrated, but now to add to that, she was also cold, wet and highly irritable. All she had wanted all day was to go home and cry, and after her major break down on Miss Mills, she had wanted to get home even more and now because of this damned bus, it was putting that on delay. She decided she had waited in the rain for long enough, she just wanted to go home now and take a nice, long bubble bath. After waiting for the bus for at least twelve minutes already, she had finally accepted that it wasn’t going to show up “Fucking stupid bus service in this town.” she spat angrily, and gave another swift kick to the seats before she started walking. Her hair was dripping now wet, almost like she had just stepped out of a shower, and her blue jeans, which now looked black, were completely soaked through, making her legs feel cold. She heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance, and looked back just to make sure it wasn’t the bus, and with a groan, she turned back with her shoulders slumped when she saw it was just a flashy looking car.

Regina just so happened to glance again when she saw someone walking in the rain. She was sure she recognized the blonde hair, even thought it was darker from being wet and had lost it’s wavy curls. _Is that Emma?_ She squinted as she looked through her slightly distorted windscreen where the wipers were moving quickly across it. _Oh my god, it is Emma._ She was completely sopping wet. She pressed the button which made her window go down, and pulled up next to her. “Emma?”

Emma heard the car pulling up beside her, but carried on walking anyway. There wasn’t much crime in this town, but having a car that she didn’t recognize pulling up beside her, still made her think otherwise, but then she heard that familiar voice say her name. _Miss Mills._ She turned around and kept her head low as she peered into the window of the Mercedes. “Hi.” was all she could muster.

“Emma, what are you doing out here in the rain?”

Emma chose that moment to respond with one of her sarcastic comments, trying to forget the fact that she had broke down in tears on the older woman just a little while ago. “Well, one of my lovely teachers decided to keep me behind, so I kind of told my ride home to go without me and that I’d walk or get the bus, then the stupid bus decided to not show up, so here I am, walking home in this fu.. freaking rain.” she managed to stop herself from saying ‘fucking rain’ and attempted a chuckle, although it didn’t make her feel any better, so she settled on a smirk, as she wiped a piece of wet hair out of her face.

Regina knew Emma was trying to make light of the situation, but felt a little guilty when she had heard what Emma said, and knowing it was her fault she had lost her ride home. “Let me take you home.” She said, already turning to pick up her purse and the papers off the passenger seat and placing them onto her lap, even though Emma hadn’t even accepted her offer yet.

Emma internally smiled at the gesture, but she couldn’t accept the ride. “It’s fine, it won’t take me long, and besides, it’s not like I can get any wetter than this.” she shrugged.

Regina wasn’t having any of it. “Miss Swan, it’s _not_ fine at all. I couldn’t care if you only lived five minutes away. Please? Just let me take you home, before you end up making yourself sick by being out in this weather. After all, it is _my_ fault you missed out on your ride home.”

“But I’m soaked. I’ll ruin your seats.” Emma tried to protest.

“They’re leather dear, they’ll dry, besides my seats are heated,” she smiled a little proudly at that fact, knowing Emma would probably want to warm up. “Please, just get in.” Regina asked with what sounded like a slight beg to her voice. When she saw Emma nod in agreement and make her way around to the other side of the car, she leaned over and opened the passenger door for her.

Regina turned on the heated seats, before Emma’s butt even hit the leather. She still couldn’t get her mind off the fact that she was sure Emma had been about to tell her that something serious had happened, but she didn’t want to scare her out of the car just yet. “Thank you” she smiled once Emma had closed the door and buckled herself in.

“For what, offering to drive me home? I should be thanking you,” She said with a slight shiver, as she held her hands in front of the hot air blowing out from the heaters to warm her hands up. “So no, thank _you._ I really would have been fine walking though.” she shrugged, when in fact she was really quite grateful to get out of the rain. 

“It’s no problem at all,” Regina smiled as she pulled away from the sidewalk. “So, where am I taking you?”

“It’s the crappy, old apartment block on West 10th Street.”

“Oh yeah, I know it.” Regina nodded. She knew exactly where it was, as she always passed it on her journey to and from school. Mifflin Street was only a couple of blocks from there. She glanced over at Emma, who still held her hands in front of the heater. “Are you feeling a little warmer now?” 

“Much. Thanks.” Emma smiled, her legs already felt a lot warmer.

“Good, I’m glad.” Regina smiled back at Emma, and it had been the first genuine looking smile she had seen on Emma’s face all day. 

Most of the ten minute drive had been in silence. Regina kept going to say something but then stopped herself, because even though she wanted to know if Emma was okay, she really didn’t want to pry and force it out of her, and Emma too, had been considering whether or not she should say something, anything, to the other woman, but couldn’t bring herself to speak either. Neither one of them had wanted to break the silence. That was until Regina slowly pulled up outside Emma’s apartment building. “Thank you for the ride home Miss Mills. I really appreciate it.”

“It was my pleasure,” Regina smiled. “Sorry again for making you miss you ride home.” She noticed that Emma’s hand was lingering on the handle of the door. “Emma.. wait a moment,” she turned a little to face the younger woman. “I really am here if you need to talk.. about _anything_ , okay?” She was hoping that Emma would listen to what she had to say and not try to run again, but she watched as Emma rest her hand back upon the wet denim of her jeans. Emma turned her head to face her, but didn’t say anything. She noticed Emma swallowing thickly and could see tears building again in her eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The thing was, Emma didn’t want to talk about it, but at the same time she really did. She could feel her heart rate quicken, not at the fact that she was sitting in Miss Mills’ car, and sitting this close to her that she could still smell the scent of her perfume, but at the fact her mind was racing. She was thinking of something she could say “Um.. it.. I.. he, he kissed someone else.” she blurted out really quickly. She knew it sounded really pathetic and she mentally scolded herself for it. She blinked hard and opened her eyes, seeing a pair of suspicious brown eyes looking back at her. 

Regina could tell right away that Emma was lying. It was the way Emma had taken a few moments to think of something, the fact that she stuttered and more importantly the fact of how quickly Emma had said it. If if had been said any quicker, Regina was sure she would have gotten whiplash from it. She knew whatever Emma was hiding had obviously upset her and she was treading on thin ice, but she chuckled a little “Oh, come on Miss Swan. You are a terrible liar. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you broke Neal Cassidy’s nose, just because he kissed somebody else?” 

Emma was a little taken aback at the bluntness coming from Regina, which made her eyes widen a little more and her pulse speed up. She bit her lip nervously and let her shoulders slump in a defeated sort of way. Ruby had often told her that she was a bad liar too, and she had even heard it from her parents on occasion too.

Regina could have kicked herself for being so blunt, and outright accusing Emma of lying and she instantly felt guilty about it. “Emma, I apologize, I shouldn’t have said that.” She said softly. _Even though I know you are lying._ She leaned over and placed her hand over the top of Emma’s still cold hand. _Please talk to me._ She silently pleaded.

Emma looked down at the warm hand that was now resting on top of hers. She swallowed again and wet her lips “Don’t apologize, you.. you’re right.” she admitted and then looked up into the warm eyes looking back at her.

“I wasn’t trying to be right,” she admitted, which she rarely ever admitted when she was wrong. “So, do you want to tell me what really happened?” she asked softly, and gently squeezed Emma’s hand to reassure her that it was okay to talk to her.

Emma felt the sting in her eyes again but blinked quickly to clear them. She took a deep breath and nodded slowly in answer to the question “But not here though.” she shook her head. She knew her mother would be home from work at any time now and she really didn’t want to be seen sitting in her teachers car. If it was a day she knew her mother was working later at the elementary school, then she would have invited Regina up to her apartment. “Um..” she thought for a moment. She knew they couldn’t go to Granny’s because too many people would be around, not that she was embarrassed to be seen sat with a teacher or anything, because for all anyone knew they could just be talking school work, but she didn’t want anyone to end up overhearing what she was going to say or for anyone to see her sitting there crying.

Regina could sense Emma would rather talk elsewhere, somewhere more private and she couldn’t think of anywhere better than her house. She didn’t care that she was technically going to invite a student back to her home. “How about my place?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry those of you who keep saying about Neal. He will get what is coming to him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's still reading this or has been waiting, I am so so sorry for the delay on updating. I've had so much on my mind, that I've not been able to fully concentrate on my writing, so I have been writing a little bit here and there until I've been able to get this chapter finished. To apologise though, this chapter is the longest so far, so I hope you'll all forgive me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and I'll try to be more frequent with updates, but please bare with me. Love to you all.

Emma was silent for a moment, considering what Regina said and then nodded. “Okay.” she gulped nervously. Wait, had she actually just agreed to go to her teachers house? Not just any teacher, but Regina Mills. The Regina Mills that she’d had a crush on since the 10th Grade, when Regina had first started teaching at Storybrooke High. Under any other circumstance, she’d be ecstatic about this and even though a part of her was sort of jumping for joy on the inside, the biggest part of her was also absolutely shitting it. She was terrified of actually telling someone other than Ruby what had actually happened after she left The Rabbit Hole on Saturday night. Emma was also scared of the fact of getting Neal into trouble, when she was certain that this whole ordeal had been her own fault. 

Regina smiled softly and glanced down at her hand that was still resting on top of Emma’s, it was quickly placed back on the steering wheel. After having taken her hand away, she noticed that Emma’s knuckles were slightly swollen and were already starting to bruise from her ‘altercation’ with the classroom wall. After a few moments of driving in silence, Regina looked over at Emma again and saw that she was just staring straight ahead out of the windscreen, looking like she was in deep thought. “Are you okay?” she asked softly, breaking the silence. She internally rolled her eyes at herself because she knew it was a silly thing to ask. She knew Emma wasn’t okay, but she only asked because she didn’t want the drive to her house to be in complete silence with Emma fighting with her thoughts the whole way, and the common question of ‘are you okay?’ was the first thing that had popped into her mind. 

_Why the fuck did I agree to this? I could be about to get in a nice, warm bubble bath right now, if I hadn't of agreed to go to Miss Mills' house. If I hadn't of agreed to tell her. Why am I so stupid? I can't even make up something else because she will see right through me._ Emma jumped a little, freeing her of her thoughts for a moment. “Hmm?” she said as she turned her head towards Regina. “Sorry, I was...” she shook her head. “What did you say?”

“I just asked if you were okay, that’s all.” 

Emma shrugged, “Yeah, I’m fine.” she lied. She shivered at the thought of everything running through her mind and also for the fact that cold droplets of water were rolling down the back of her neck from her wet hair. _What if she thinks that I’m to blame for this? Or worse, what if she thinks I’m a liar?_

Regina knew Emma was not okay. She could see that Emma was still fighting with her thoughts. In a way it was almost like she could _hear_ Emma thinking, even though she wasn’t saying anything at all. “Are you still cold?” she asked after seeing Emma shiver from the corner of her eye.

Emma nodded “Yeah, I’m f-freezing.” she admitted with a shudder and rubbed her hands together in an attempt to warm herself up a little more. Obviously Regina’s heated seats could only warm her so much, but after all, she was sat there in cold, wet clothes and had sopping wet hair.

Regina felt a little guilty, because she knew Emma would have probably changed out of her wet clothes by now, had she had gone straight home. “We’ll be at my house in a minute and hopefully you’ll be able to warm up.” Shortly after saying that, she pulled up onto her driveway and for the time being, the rain had subsided.

Emma looked out of the window and her eyes widened when she saw the house. It was more than a house, it was a mansion. “Wow, this is your place?” she asked with astonishment. She had passed the house on Mifflin Street a handful of times before, but never had any idea that the place was actually Regina’s.

“Yes.” Regina said as she turned the engine off, seeing the surprised look on Emma’s face. 

“Do you live here alone?” she asked and straight away regretted that sometimes she had no filter on her mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be asking that.” Although she was kind of curious to know if anyone lived in this huge house with her. 

“It’s okay, but yes, I live here alone.” Regina sort of nodded and shrugged at the same time. She didn’t overly like living in the big house alone. She did enjoy the quiet sometimes, but it was extremely lonely most of the time, but the house had been left to her by her father Henry, who’d passed away five years ago and she wasn’t going to let her mother take that away from her, seeing as the house and a few of the possessions inside were the only things she had left of her father. Regina picked the papers and her purse off of her lap and stepped out the car choosing not to disclose that information as it often was a touchy subject and she needed to stay focused for Emma.

Emma nodded realizing Regina wasn’t going to say any more and she peeled herself from the leather seat, where her damp clothes had stuck to it slightly. She picked up her bag and got out of the car, following Regina along the path towards the door.

Regina pressed a button on her keys and a beep sounded, indicating that her car was now locked. She pushed the keys in lock and unlocked the big white door to her home and stepped inside, holding the door open for Emma. “Come on in.”

Emma silently walked through the door, marveling at the beautiful house. She’d never even set foot in a home this beautiful before, let alone lived in one. Even though her mother would have been home shortly, she was glad she hadn’t suggested that Miss Mills come up to her loft apartment, not that she was unappreciative of her home, because she knew how hard her parents worked to afford and maintain their cosy loft apartment, but Regina’s home did put hers to shame.

Regina placed her keys in a dish, on a table by the door and put her purse and the papers down next to it. “There’s a bathroom this way, I’ll get you a towel so you can dry off.” Regina spoke over her shoulder as she headed towards the kitchen.

Emma stood in front of the door she just came through. She was a little nervous now she was actually here, nervous about the upcoming conversation they were going to have, which she was dreading and nervous at the fact she was in her teacher crush’s home.

Regina stopped in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder when she didn’t hear any footsteps behind her, seeing Emma still stood by the front door. “Emma?”

Emma’s eyes snapped back to Regina, which had been admiring a large painting of a young brunette girl on a beautiful brown horse. She wondered if the the young woman was Miss Mills. “Yes, coming.” she said, wiping her feet on the mat and dropping her school bag on the floor and quickly followed after the older woman.

“The bathroom is just through there,” Regina pointed towards the small bathroom just off from the big open kitchen. “There are fresh towels in the cupboard under the sink.” 

“Thank you.” Emma nodded with a slight smile and headed towards the bathroom. Once the bathroom door was shut, Emma took a deep breath. _You can do this._ She opened up the cupboard Miss Mills had told her about and pulled out a fresh white towel. She took off her jacket and laid it over the edge of the sink whilst she tried to dry her shirt as much as she could with the towel. Tipping her hair to one side, she tried to dry it a little, to stop it from dripping down her neck at least. She couldn’t quite believe how wet she had gotten. Even her bra felt wet and to be honest, she couldn’t wait to get out of the damp clothes. She was still cold and didn’t want to put her damp jacket back on just yet, so she draped the soft towel over her shoulders, picked up her jacket and walked out of the bathroom. Peering into the kitchen, she saw Regina hovering over the stove. “I..uh, I hope you don’t mind-” she shrugged to gesture to the towel that was over her shoulders as she took a seat at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

Regina turned to face Emma. “No, of course not,” she shook her head. “Would you like a cup of cocoa?” She had noticed that morning in Granny’s that Emma had been nursing a mug of the hot chocolate drink and thought maybe the hot drink would help her warm up a little bit. She’d already heated up some milk in a pan and placed two mugs onto the counter, assuming Emma was going to say yes.

Emma shook her head “No, I’m good, thanks.” 

“I’m going to have one myself, so it’s no trouble.” She had actually only been making it for Emma. She’d normally come home and make herself a coffee if she had a lot of marking or lesson planning to do, or on a really stressful day, she’d pour herself a generous glass of wine.

Emma nodded “Okay, well only if you’re sure, then yes I’d love one, thanks,” she replied quietly. “Um, do you.. do you have any cinnamon? It’s just I like cinnamon on my cocoa.” she asked sheepishly, wondering if that had been a little rude to ask.

“I do,” Regina nodded and went over to the spice rack. She run her finger along the different spice and herb jars until she stopped on the one she was looking for and pulled it out. “I’ve never put cinnamon on my cocoa before.” she admitted. She didn’t really drink cocoa much at all actually.

“Oh, you should try it. It’s really good, well if you like cinnamon that is.” Emma smiled.

“I’m afraid I don’t have any whipped cream though.” Regina added, knowing Granny’s always offered cream on their hot chocolate.

“That’s okay, cinnamon in the cocoa itself is really good too.”

Regina could already tell when Emma was genuinely smiling or when it was a feigned smile and the smile on her face right now seemed like a genuine one. “I do like cinnamon. I’ll try it.” Regina smiled back. She mixed in the cocoa powder to the already heated milk and stirred it until there were no lumps, then carefully poured the hot brown liquid into the two mugs. She slid the jar of cinnamon across the counter towards Emma and let her be in charge of how much cinnamon was added to the drinks.

Emma picked up the jar and sprinkled some into both of the mugs and then stirred it in. She walked over to the spice rack that she watched Regina get the cinnamon from and placed it back in the empty space where it belonged. When she turned back, Miss Mills standing there smiling at her, which instantly made her cheeks flush a little red. If she had of been at home, she’d of left the jar on the counter for her mother to put away, so she didn’t actually know why she just put it away for Regina.

Regina quickly drew her gaze away from Emma when she noticed a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. She picked up both mugs and took a sip from one of them and actually found the added flavor of cinnamon to be a great taste with the cocoa. “You’re right, that is really good,” She took another sip and headed towards the living room. It was completely silent, except for the the sound of Regina’s heels clicking across the hardwood floor. She placed both mugs onto the coffee table and then gestured to the sofa “Take a seat.” she said waiting for Emma to sit down and then took a seat beside her. 

Emma placed her jacket on the sofa beside her. She had been dreading this moment and was honestly trying to delay the conversation for as long as she possibly could. She picked up the mug that didn’t have a faint red lipstick mark on it and sipped on it nervously. She silently hummed in delight at the warmth of it going down her throat and instantly warming her body up.

Regina could once again see Emma was sat there thinking things over in her head. They had been sat in silence for what felt like too long, before Regina cleared her throat to break the silence. “If you’ve changed your mind and don’t want to tell me anything, it’s okay, I’m not going to force you to tell me anything, so please don’t feel like you _have_ to talk to me, just because your sat on my couch right now. You can sit there and finish your cocoa and then I’ll take you home, if that’s what you want?” she paused for a moment and then continued “I want you to know that whatever you do tell me though will be kept in the strictest of confidence and wont go any further than this room. I know I’m your teacher, but right now we're not at school, so perhaps consider me a friend? You really can trust me Emma.” she smiled warmly when Emma turned to face her.

Emma looked back down to the drink in her hands, before placing it back down onto the coffee table in front of them. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly before reopening them again. Her gaze settling on Regina’s face. She knew it was now or never. If she didn’t tell Regina now, she probably wouldn’t tell her at all. “It was my fault,” she said in a whisper. She opened her mouth to carry on and hesitated, before her thoughts just spilled from her mouth in a quick jumble. “Why didn’t I just shut him down earlier that evening when he tried to kiss me? I let him take me home. I asked him to stay with me. I.. I kissed him and.. and he.. we.. I..” she swallowed audibly, her eyes starting to glisten with tears that were threatening to spill at any moment.

The silence was heavy and sort of tense. Regina didn’t say anything. She was trying to process the outburst of words that had just fallen from Emma’s mouth. _What is she trying to say? That she slept with Neal by mistake? No, that can’t be right. Why would she have punched him like that? He-_ Then it suddenly clicked what Emma was trying to say. She couldn’t find any words in that moment that were appropriate. She didn’t want to say anything that might stop Emma from continuing. She’d wait until Emma was finished before she’d say anything.

Emma could see Regina trying to process her outburst and saw the moment in Regina’s eyes when her teacher had realized what it was that she meant. It was then that she blinked and the tears started rolling down her cheeks. “It’s my own fault. I shouldn’t have drunk so much. I don’t even like him in that way, I don’t like _any_ boys in that way and I should have stopped him and I didn’t,” Her head fell into her hands and she started sobbing. “It’s all my fucking fault.” she cried, not even realizing, that in her rambling state that she had basically just admitted to Regina that she was gay.

The sight of Emma broke Regina’s heart. She thought seeing Emma break down back in the classroom was heartbreaking enough, but this was worse. She felt her vision starting to go slightly blurry and she realized that her own eyes were filling up with tears. She knew she shouldn’t be getting upset over this, but she couldn’t help it. She had grown an incredibly big soft spot for Emma. All she felt she could do to help in that moment, was shuffle a little closer to Emma and pull her into her arms to comfort her and to let her know she was there and that she wasn't alone. She understood completely what Emma was going through, but she closed her eyes quickly and willed those thoughts to stay suppressed in her mind. 

Emma didn’t hesitate this time and allowed Regina to embrace her for the second time that day. In fact Emma wanted the comfort. She knew she wasn’t going to get this comfort from anyone else, because she didn’t have it in her to be able to tell anyone else and even though Ruby knew, she didn’t feel like she had received the kind of comfort from her, as she was right now from Regina. It had also been the first time she had actually said out loud what she had been thinking about all day. Ruby had never asked any questions earlier in the day, she had just assumed by Emma’s reaction of punching Neal in the face, that what they had suspected the previous day, was in fact correct.

“Emma, it’s not your fault,” she spoke softly, whilst Emma cried into her shoulder. She gently rest her chin upon Emma’s still damp head and started rubbing soothing circles over her back. Not only was Regina upset for the Emma, she was also seething and she currently wanted to inflict a lot of pain onto Neal Cassidy, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything to him. _Except maybe fail his ass._

“It is my fault, I didn’t tell him no. I didn’t make him stop,” Emma cried into Regina’s shoulder “I just laid there and..” she stopped herself, not wanting to actually say any more, although she kept replaying Neal’s words from that morning in her head _‘Even if you did just lay there and let me do all the work.’_

"You're not alone Emma. I'm here," Regina gently shushed Emma as she continued the soothing motions on her back. “It’s not your fault.” She repeated. She remembered that she had seen Neal leave with a very inebriated Emma that night. She could have made Emma leave when she had bumped into her in the bathroom. She instantly got hit with a wave of guilt. _Could this of been prevented had I made Emma leave when I saw her?_ Regina shook the thought from her head, because she knew even if she had of made them leave, they still could have gone elsewhere afterwards. She knew she should mention that Emma should go to the police, but with the state she was in right now, decided it’d be best not to mention it just yet. 

Eventually Emma had calmed somewhat, except for the odd sniffle. She pulled away slightly, her face now blotchy from the crying. She was sure she had run out of tears now, what with the amount she had cried the last two days. She never really cried this much, especially not in front of anyone

Regina tucked a stray piece of blonde hair behind Emma’s ear and looked into the watery, red rimmed, green eyes and suddenly found her thumb gently wiping a stray tear from Emma’s rosy cheek. 

Emma looked up into the brown eyes above her and leaned into the gentle touch. What Regina hadn’t even realized was that her hand was cupping Emma’s cheek and that her thumb was now gently caressing it. She stopped quite abruptly, realizing what she was doing when Emma placed her own hand over the top of hers. She pulled her hand away with a cough to clear her throat “Um, would you like a glass of water?” she offered, trying to not draw attention to the fact she had been stroking Emma’s cheek. She also thought that after Emma crying again that the poor girl was probably becoming dehydrated and she knew the mugs of hot chocolate were most likely cold now.

“Got anything stronger?” Emma said quietly, but one side of her mouth started tugging upwards into a small smirk. In that moment, it didn’t occur to her that she was actually asking her teacher if she had anything alcoholic to drink. 

Regina didn’t condone underage drinking, even more so after everything that had happened with Emma, but right now she thought that maybe Emma needed it. “How about a >i>small glass of the best apple cider you’ve ever tasted?” she said, with emphasis on the word small.

Emma’s eye’s widened, she really hadn’t expected Miss Mills to actually offer her an alcoholic drink. If anything she had expected to be scolded by the older woman for even having the audacity to ask. “Um, yes please.” she nodded sheepishly, as she watched Regina pick up the cold mugs of cocoa and then headed back in the direction of the kitchen. Emma couldn’t help it, but her eyes were fixated on Regina’s ass, as they often were. Once Regina had disappeared from her line of vision, she took that moment to glance around the room. The whole house was immaculate, not a thing out of place. Her eyes settled on another painting above the fireplace, once again of the beautiful brown horse, this time the young brunette girl was stood beside the horse, next to a graying man.. 

Regina returned a few minutes later, carrying two _very_ small glass tumblers of amber colored liquid and handed one to Emma as she took her seat back beside the young woman. 

“Thanks,” Emma smiled a little, bringing the glass to her lips and took a sip. “Mmm, this is really nice,” she hummed at the delicious taste. It really was the best apple cider she had ever tasted. “Did you make this yourself?” she asked curiously and took another mouthful. 

Regina took a sip herself and nodded. She’d never had anything but compliments on her apple cider. “Yes, my father taught me how to make it when I was younger. I have an apple tree in my back yard that I’ve tended to since I was a little girl.” She smiled.

Emma smiled back, but jumped a little when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket for the third time. Up until now she had been ignoring it, but this time she pulled it out. She had a text message from Ruby, which she decided she’d read later and she had a text message and a missed call from her mother. She pressed on the message from Mary Margaret: _Emma, are you still with Ruby? When will you be home? I’m going to start cooking dinner soon._ “It’s my Mom,” She said looking back at Regina. “She wants to know when I’m going to be home, because she’s cooking dinner.” she said, hoping that it wasn’t still raining. It was already starting to get dark and walking home in the rain was bad enough, but walking home in the rain and in the dark, was worse. “So I guess I’d better be heading home now.” she placed the now empty glass down on the coffee table and stood up. “Than-”

Regina quickly cut Emma off and stood up herself “Miss Swan, you don’t honestly think I’m going to let you walk home in the dark, do you? It’s also raining again. I’m taking you home.” 

Emma shook her head as she removed the towel that was still draped over her shoulders and handed it to Regina “It’s fine Miss Mills, really. Thanks for the offer, but-”

Regina cut Emma off once again and raised her eyebrows. She held up her hand “No buts dear, it wasn’t an offer. I’m talking you home.” she said firmly and folded the damp towel and placed it onto the coffee table for now.

Emma sighed, not for the fact that she was ungrateful for the offer but for the fact she knew she wasn’t going to win this argument against Miss Mills. “You really don’t have to, but thank you.” she smiled, picking up her jacket and putting it back on now she had warmed up. She followed Regina to the foyer and picked up her school bag.

"It's no problem," Regina grabbed her keys and picked up a large umbrella. She held the door open for Emma again and then closed it behind them. As she stepped out, she opened up the umbrella and stood closer to Emma so she too could get under to keep dry from the once again pouring rain, and together they walked to the car. Emma could have sworn that she felt her heart skip a little at the gesture. Regina walked Emma round to the passenger side and let her in, so she didn't have to get wet, before heading back around to the drivers side. She collapsed the umbrella and climbed in, leaning over to put the umbrella into the passenger foot well. Her hand accidentally brushed against Emma's leg as she pulled away. "Sorry."

Emma’s heart beat that much quicker when she felt Regina’s hand brush against her knee. “It’s.. it’s fine.” she swallowed and smiled.

Regina buckled herself in and backed out of her driveway. It was only been silent between the two of them for a few moments, but she didn’t want the drive back to Emma’s apartment to be in complete silence this time, like it had earlier on, so she thought of something, _anything_ that could break that silence. “Emma, about your test paper today-”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t concentrate on it.” She quickly defended herself, knowing the conversation about her not even doing the paper was going to be bought up at some point. “I’m guessing I’m being failed on it?” she said with a sigh.

“No, of course not,” she glanced at Emma quickly before looking back at the road, seeing the deflated look from the young woman. “I was going to say, I’d like you to stay after school one day this week to re-take it.”

“You’re going to give me another chance?” Emma said surprisingly. Even though Miss Mills was her favorite teacher, she knew how much of a hard ass the older woman was when it came to work and tests.

“Don’t sound so surprised Miss Swan.” she chuckled a little. She knew herself that she never normally gave second chances to anyone. “You’re a good student Emma, one of my best ones actually.”

Emma’s heart fluttered at hearing the chuckle that came from Regina. She’d never really heard her laugh before, and honestly the sound was like music to her ears. When it had gone silent, she realized that she still hadn’t responded yet. “Um.. Thank you so much Miss Mills. I really appreciate that.”

“Regina.”

“What?”

“We’re outside of school right now, so I think it’s acceptable for you to call me Regina.” she smiled, as she turned onto West 10th Street and quietly pulled up outside Emma’s apartment building again. She turned to face Emma.

Emma sat in silence as the car came to a stop. She turned slightly to face Regina. _Why am I looking at her lips? Eyes, look at her eyes._ “Well, thank you for everything today.. _Regina._ ” she said testing out Regina’s name on her tongue. She had said her name before of course, but never actually to the woman’s face. Her eyes had drifted back down to those plump red painted lips again. She felt herself slowly gravitating closer to the older woman. Her eyes looking up from those luscious lips and back into the chocolate eyes before her. Her heart was racing. It only took a few seconds for Emma to close the distance and then her lips were pressed against Regina’s. She instantly pulled away, realizing her mistake “I’m so sorry.” she said quickly, her cheeks already starting to turn red with embarrassment. She grabbed her bag and rushed out of Regina’s car, slamming the door behind her as she run off into her apartment building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just a shout out to the person who messaged me, telling me that my writing is so shit and that there are so many mistakes and that it's also a shit story... Firstly I know I'm not that great at writing, I'll be the first to admit that and yes there probably are mistakes, because I don't have a beta reader or anything, so all mistakes are my own, but I do proof read my writing at least twice, sometimes three times before posting, but there still could be mistakes, and secondly, if my story is so shit why have you even bothered to read it all? Seeing it was the previous chapter that your message come through on. So thank you for the oh so lovely message, but it got me thinking that perhaps I do need a beta reader, so if anyone can help me out at all, please let me know. Thank you :)
> 
> Anyway.. What did you all think of this chapter? How do you think Regina will react about the kiss?


End file.
